(Bloomberg) -- The European Union needs to step up efforts to combat money-laundering as more cases within the banking industry are expected to pop up, according to Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra.
“Those who think that this problem is mostly a problem that is linked to some of the banks in some of the countries are up for a rude awakening,” Hoekstra said in an interview in Brussels on Thursday. “It truly is D-Day for the fight against money laundering.”
Hoekstra is among finance chiefs calling on the EU's executive arm to look at setting up a common institution to fight illicit financial flows, triggered by high-profile scandals in several European countries, including at Dutch lender ING Groep NV. EU finance ministers meeting on Thursday endorsed the potential creation of a regional agency to prevent such crimes.
Read More: Money to Launder? Here's How (Hint: Find a Bank)
“My view is we have only started to see the beginning and every single case that I have seen of money laundering has an international dimension to it,” Hoekstra said.
“It is time and it is highly necessary to fight back at a much more sophisticated and thorough level,” according to the Dutch official, making the case for banks, national and European governments to do more in tackling what he called “a huge” issue.
The discussion in Brussels exposed varying levels of enthusiasm on the creation of a single supervisor, signaling that despite a joint statement, differences remain to be sorted out. Hungarian Finance Minister Mihaly Varga said national authorities shouldn't be stripped of any powers, while his Polish counterpart stressed the need for further analysis before taking any decisions.
Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calvino demonstrated greater willingness to act, saying “it's all very good to do an impact assessment. The proposal should have an impact assessment. But frankly, we need to move to a European supervisor.”
--With assistance from Alexander Weber.
To contact the reporters on this story: Joost Akkermans in Brussels at jakkermans@bloomberg.net;Viktoria Dendrinou in Brussels at vdendrinou@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Nikos Chrysoloras, Richard Bravo
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
