In the night from Wednesday to Thursday, the European Union reached a provisional agreement on stricter rules to prevent money laundering. In a press release the European Council writes that the regulatory package must protect European citizens and the financial system against terrorist financing. The Belgian Minister of Finance, Vincent van Peteghem, writes that the new rules deny fraudsters, organized crime and terrorists the opportunity to abuse the financial system.
If the new rules are formally adopted by the European Parliament and the member states, crypto services, banks and, for example, football clubs and luxury goods sellers will have greater responsibilities to help governments combat money laundering. They are given the task of reporting large — and therefore potentially suspicious — transactions. Frantic efforts to impose sanctions on Russian oligarchs have made the European Union realize how well criminals hide their assets.
The crypto market is also coming under scrutiny. Under the new rules, providers of crypto services must now carry out careful investigations into transactions exceeding 1,000 euros. In this way, they must learn more about their consumers and inform the authorities in case of suspicious circumstances. The crypto market has proven to be a paradise for criminals, because they can now easily make payments with crypto currencies without the intervention of regulated authorities.
Finally, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament characterize the world of football as a ‘risky’ sector. While banks have long been saddled with the obligation to report suspicious transactions, in many cases football clubs are completely unaware of the parties they have entered into. From a recently published study by NRC it turned out that, for example, Ajax and PSV received money in the past from obscure and sometimes criminal Asian gambling companies. From now on, book research must precede such sponsorship deals.