Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) Chair Bruna Szego is pressing ahead with the build-up of the new organisation, and at a recent event in Frankfurt outlined three main priorities that top the agenda: first, rapid growth and the recruitment of new staff; second, the development of IT systems; and third, rolling out a communication strategy with stakeholders such as supervisory authorities and the public.

She did not conceal that the conditions under which the authority is being built – intended to raise Europe’s fight against money laundering to a higher level – are anything but simple: „We are facing the challenges of a startup. It’s like flying an airplane while it is still being built. And of course, you don’t want to crash,“ Szego said at the Frankfurt Financial Centre Talks. The event was hosted by the International Bankers Forum, the Association of Foreign Banks in Germany, and the Bundesverband Deutscher Volks- und Betriebswirte (bdvb), the network of business academics and economists.

Szego moved into her office in the Messeturm in mid-February, and AMLA officially began its work on July 1. At present, the agency counts 30 employees, a number that is to quadruple by the end of the year. According to the plan, AMLA will eventually be fully operational with 430 employees by early 2028.

Its two main tasks will then be the direct supervision of around 40 cross-border financial service providers with high money-laundering risks, as well as the coordination of national supervisory authorities. These include the Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), which receive reports on suspicious financial transactions from banks and other obliged entities, analyse them, and – if suspicion is confirmed – forward them to law-enforcement authorities. Each of the 27 EU countries is required to maintain an FIU.

The fragmented structures of anti-money-laundering efforts in Europe – especially in the non-financial sector – are one of the reasons why money launderers often find it easy. AMLA is meant to help eliminate shortcomings and harmonise money-laundering prevention, for example by strengthening cooperation between national supervisory authorities and FIUs. „Our task is not to replace national authorities and FIUs, but to connect them in order to build a coherent, risk-based, and effective system against threats,“ Szego stated.

There is no shortage of challenges – as is already evident with the FIUs. These differ significantly from country to country in terms of staffing and financial resources, operational practices, and how they understand their role, Szego explained. Added to this are differences in institutional embedding. „Some FIUs belong to the police, others to the administration, and still others to the intelligence services,“ she clarified. The latter makes information exchange considerably more difficult, as most data is highly confidential.

According to Szego, however, these experiences do not deter her, saying "it is just the beginning, but we are on the right track.“ She hopes that AMLA will become a cornerstone of the European financial landscape, protecting the financial system and contributing to financial stability. The new institution cannot achieve this alone, though. Both AMLA and the banks are of central importance „for Europe’s collective defence and for a stable, resilient, and trustworthy financial system,“ Szego stressed.