Privacy fears slow spread of UK-style data-sharing to combat money laundering

Legal hurdles await race for European equivalents to UK AML partnership between banks and police.

European banks are ramping up spending on the fight against financial crime, after a wave of money-laundering scandals on the continent.

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EUROPE’S MONEY LAUNDERING PROBLEM
1. Can Europe’s banks wash themselves clean?
Calls to make those in charge responsible
2. Why Europe can’t stop money laundering
Is Brexit good news for money launderers?
3. Regulators find few lessons in Danske
4. How privacy fears slow UK-style data sharing
5. Danske wields risk axe after Estonia scandal

However, industry insiders betray little optimism about the impact it will have on crime, let alone on banks’ reputations.

Rob Wainwright, a former head of Europol now working at Deloitte, gives a typical assessment: “Banks are spending more and more on anti-money laundering (AML) staff and technology over the past 10 years, but the problem of financial crime in the system as a whole is arguably not getting any better.”

A public-private partnership developed in the UK during the past three years is a rare...

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