EU mulls new powers to tackle money flows

Brussels will seek to give EU agencies more muscle to crack down on money laundering and terrorist financing in the wake of high-profile scandals that have shone a light on Europe’s deficiencies in tackling criminal cross-border money flows. A Financial Times report says the European Commission is working on proposals that would give the European Banking Authority, the EU’s banking regulator, greater enforcement powers and more resources to investigate the activities of banks involved in illicit financing, according to senior officials. In separate plans, notes the report, the commission wants to give the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, a recently created pan-EU agency, powers to launch investigations into the financing of terrorist activity across its member states from 2025.