The European anti-money laundering framework – At a turning point? The role of financial intelligence units
| Author | Fabio A Siena |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20322844221105406 |
| Published date | 01 June 2022 |
| Date | 01 June 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
New Journal of European Criminal Law
2022, Vol. 13(2) 216–246
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/20322844221105406
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The European anti-money
laundering framework –At
a turning point? The role of
financial intelligence units
Fabio A Siena
University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
Abstract
Last July, 2021, the European Commission presented a package of legislative proposals that aspires
to radically change the EU anti-money laundering legal framework. This paper focuses on Financial
Intelligence Units (FIUs) role and functions, and critically analyses the impact of on-goi ng devel-
opments, taking into account international standards and the most recent studies and research. The
overall conclusions show that many shortcomings remain and, in particular, how the accelerator is
pushed excessively in the direction of increasing powers and too little in that of guarantees of FIUs
independence and autonomy and of protection of individual rights.
Keywords
Anti-money laundering, financial intelligence units, anti-money laundering package of legislative
proposals, financial action task force recommendations, Egmont group principles
Corresponding author:
Fabio A Siena, University of Perugia,Via A. Pascoli, 33, Perugia, 06123, Italy.
Email: fabioantonio.siena@unipg.it
Introduction
Money laundering has a transnational dimension and continues to grow as a threat. These two
factors have led the international community to develop an integrated and complementary model for
combatting this criminal phenomenon and its derivative and associated risks.
1
The model is characterised by two components. First, by the uniform criminalisation of money
laundering and by increasingly shared rules on freezing and confiscation of illicit proceeds.
Second, by the development of a complex regulatory system that aims to prevent the entry of such
‘dirty money’into the financial system through, on the one hand, obligations to report suspicious
transactions to Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) and, on the other hand, a prevention
mechanism that spans the dismantling of banking secrecy and increasingly proactive collabo-
ration with the credit institutions (and some non-financial entities and professionals) who are
called upon to operate as ‘gatekeepers’.
2
Financial intelligence units are at the crossroads of the second one, that is, the Anti-Money
Laundering (AML) system, which is separate and independent from the repressive one, but at the
same time complementary and functionally connected to it. FIUs are the centralised and specialised
entities or agencies in charge of receiving reports and disclosures, of carrying out financial analysis
and, finally, of disseminating the results of their activities to the competent authorities, thereby not
only preventing money laundering, but also triggering law enforcement investigation, prosecution
and recovery of illicit proceeds.
3
1. See the historic Irving R. Kaufman et al., Cash Connection: Organized Crime, Financial Instigations and Money
Laundering. Interim Report to the President and the Attorney General (US President’s Commission on Organized Crime,
1984) and UN Secretary-General, The impact of organized criminal activities upon society at large, E/CN.15/1993/1 3
(UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, 1993). In academic literature, see Michelle Gallant,
‘Tacklingthe Risks of Money Laundering’, in Nic Ryder (ed), White Collar Crime and Risk. Financial Crime,Corruption
and the Financial Crisis (Springer, 2018) 121–124. See also, from the perspective of policymakers, William C. Gilmore,
Dirty Money. The evolution of international measures to counter money laundering and the financingof terrorism (4th
edn, COEP, 2011) 15–21 and, from the perspective of financial institutions, Dennis Cox, An Introduction to Money
Laundering Deterrence (Wiley, 2011) 238–241.
2. Before establishing a commercial relationship, such entities must perform a customer due diligence check (Know Your
Customerprinciple).This involves verifyingthe economic functionof the requested transactionsand lookingfor indicators of
anomaly or suspicion. Where a transaction fails this check, the entitie s must issue a reasoned disclosure to the FIU.
3. See Paul Gleason and Glenn Gottselig (eds.), Financial Intelligence Units: An overview (IMF and World Bank, 2004) 32
ff.; Anthony Amicelle and Killian Chaudieu, ‘In search of Transnational Financial Intelligence: Questioning Cooperation
Between Financial intelligence Units’, in Colin King et al. (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Criminal and Terrorism
Financing Law (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) 649 ff; Abigail J. Marcus, Financial intelligence units: effective institutional
design, mandate and powers (Transparency International, 2019).
Siena 217
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