Analysis of IA accompanying the Proposal for a Directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing
1. Introduction
The aim of the proposal published in 2013 and generally known as the fourth anti-money laundering directive, is to review previous regulation, 3th AMLD (Directive 2005/60/EC). European Commission needs to update it to hinder incoming threats and keep pace with the new international standards.
My interest into this topic arose from mafia stories. When I was very young and I listened to tales about heroes such as Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino, Carlo Dalla Chiesa, I realized I wanted to try fighting, even just in my small way, criminal organizations.
From 70’s until the early 90’s Italy was affected by continuous acts of violence carried out by terrorists and organized crime, which contributed to spread terror and uncertainty in a context which saw our country weakened by corruption.
Things change and criminals’ ways to operate do too, but there is a need that never goes out of fashion for them: the attempt to conceal or disguise the true nature, source and ownership of the proceeds which have a criminal or illicit origin and transform those into seemingly legitimate income. Consequences would be a very strong negative impact on national GDP and, therefore, undermined stability and reputation of the financial sector.
That is to say criminals will always try to take advantage of flaws of the system for their illicit purposes, using different techniques. The discipline related to AML (anti-money laundering) needs to be constantly implemented, reviewed and periodically revised, taking into account the constantly changing nature of the phenomenon in question and terrorist financing threats.
This explains why EU needed to go again through the discipline
