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EBA consults on new Guidelines on the role of AML / CFT Compliance Officers

On 2 August 2021 the European Banking Authority (EBA) announced a three-month public consultation on a new set of guidelines for the role, tasks, and responsibilities of compliance officers responsible for anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the finance of terrorism (CFT).

The EBA’s proposed guidelines include:

• Requiring companies to appoint a compliance officer at a managerial level with responsibility for anti-money laundering policies.
• Instructing AML/CFT officers to develop and maintain a money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment framework – both for business-wide and individual risks.
• Codifying a list of information that AML/CFT compliance officers should include inactivity reports to management.

Empowering national regulators to request information that enables them to test the “adequacy and effectiveness of AML/CFT compliance officer function in line with these and other ESA (European Supervisory Authority) guidelines”.

The EBA’s move toward a more centralized oversight system reflects its concern that existing requirements set out in Directive (EU) 2015/849 – more commonly known as the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4AMLD) – have been implemented unevenly across different sectors of the EU’s financial system. With fifth and sixth AMLDs also now in force, the EBA may be acting to ensure these latest guidelines are applied more consistently.

Click here for EBA’s ‘Consultation paper’.

Guidelines on ML/TF risk factors (revised)

At the beginning of March 2021, the EBA published revised guidelines which were intended to reinforce the EU’s fight against money laundering and terrorism financing, to reconcile these with recent changes within the EU legal framework, and to address new risks.

The EBA-guidelines focus on legislative bodies and supervisory authorities in the EU member states and must be nationally implemented. The guidelines also include factors that financial enterprises must take into account when assessing a money laundering or terrorism risk connected to a business relationship or an incidental transaction. Furthermore, the guidelines provide information about the way in which financial institutions can adapt their customer research to restrict the risks of money laundering or terrorism financing established by them, with a view to rendering these measures more suitable and proportionate.

Click here for the full version of the guidelines and the Compliance Table.