2023-08-17 05:00:17
Dn its proposal on the digital euro published on 28 June (« Proposal for a Regulation on the Establishment of the Digital Euro “), the European Commission insists on the possibilities of person-to-person payment offered by this new currency, which would thus bring it closer to the anonymity of cash payments.
Such a payment service would make it possible, without the intervention of a bank, to place money in one’s account via a third party, to execute payments without or with a credit card, to send funds abroad, to make payments by a third party from their bank account, all new ways of paying which would thus subject traditional banks to necessary competition.
Terrorist financing risks
But, for its part, the European Banking Authority (EBA) recalls in a recent report on the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing the vulnerabilities of payment services when they are decoupled from banks (« EBA Report on ML/TF Risks Associated with Payment Institutions »).
Indeed, the occasional user of such a payment service may not reside in the country, or even outside the European Union, for example in the case of a transfer of funds. He may have been kicked out of his bank because of a risky profile. It can be online gambling companies or cryptocurrency platforms, not always clean on them…
Have all possible loopholes to launder money with the proliferation of digital payment services been properly assessed? Are the methods for identifying the customer remotely infallible? Can digital payment companies manage as well as banks to identify risky customers, with whom they have no proximity?
These companies allow intermediaries to use their services – tobacconists, supermarkets, service stations, phone shops – which in effect makes it possible to reach more customers than with banks. But these intermediaries are not accustomed to providing financial services, and even less to detecting money laundering… Do the checks put in place by payment platforms really make up for this lack of experience?
Insufficient controls
They also offer their services as a “white label” to other companies, but the latter are then no longer responsible for the customers they serve. How then can the users of these services, with whom the payment platforms are not in direct contact, be controlled?
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