Anti-Money Laundering in the EU – the Adoption of New Rules

Abstract

Europe started the fight against money laundering in 1990. Since then, European rules in this matter have been constantly adjusted, with the latest changes taking place in 2024, to counter this phenomenon, which has escalated in recent decades. The fight is difficult because new technologies and the liberalization of capital flows globally are being exploited by financial criminals. On the other hand, the compliance costs of European entities, especially banks, to align with the rules in force substantially exceed the sums of money recovered by the authorities. Moreover, money laundering is a difficult phenomenon to quantify because in the EU states there are no relevant statistical data on the dynamics of this phenomenon.