European Supervisory Authorities publish guidance to prevent terrorist financing and money laundering in electronic fund transfers

The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, ESMA and EIOPA) has published guidelines to prevent the abuse of funds transfers for terrorist financing and money laundering purposes.

The joint guidelines aim to set clear, common regulatory expectations of payment service providers’ policies and procedures and to pave the way for a more harmonised and effective pan-European approach to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism in the funds transfer context. The guidelines also explain in practical terms what payment service providers should do to detect missing or incomplete information on the payer or the payee, and what they should do when managing a transfer of funds that lacks the required information or receive transfers of funds from a payment service provider that repeatedly fails to provide the required information.

The guidelines will apply from six months after the date on which they are issued.