The banking associations AEB, CECA and Unacc, in collaboration with Sepblac, have organized, for the seventh consecutive year, the Sectoral Conference on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, which brings together leading experts from the banking sector in this field in Spain, supervisory bodies and regulatory authorities.
The event, held in the CECA auditorium, aims to promote dialogue between the private sector and the public sector in the field of prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. Credit institutions in Spain are particularly notable for their diligence and compliance in collaborating with the authorities in the fight against these crimes, an aspect that has been recognized by reports from international organizations specialized in this matter.
The annual event was attended by representatives from virtually all credit institutions affiliated with the organizing associations, all of them specialized in AML/CFT. In this new edition, the main regulatory developments, the latest risk typologies and trends in money laundering, the supervisory approach and other current topics were presented, such as the impact of the new MiCA regulation and the application of the new European regulatory package, highlighting the impact of the creation of the new European authority, the Anti-Money-Laundering Authority (AMLA), which will represent a major challenge for all of Europe.
The conference was opened by Lourdes Jiménez Ramos, Deputy Director General of Inspection and Control of Capital Movements of the Treasury, who highlighted all the developments regarding international financial sanctions, the impact of the new European regulation, in relation to the transposition of the Funds Regulation, and the new European authority AMLA, as well as the impact on Spanish prevention regulations, both in terms of the legislative package and the new FATF standards
This was followed by three round tables focused on supervision, financial intelligence and regulation, respectively, in which representatives from both the public and private sectors participated.
The first of the tables was presented and moderated by Raquel Cabeza, Corporate Director of Risk and Compliance at CECA, and was dedicated to the developments and analysis of inspections carried out in the field of AML/CFT by the different supervisors. Participants included Juan Casillas, head of the Banking, Insurance and Securities Inspection Unit at Sepblac, Federico Cabañas, head of the Money Laundering Prevention Group in the Directorate General of Supervision at the Bank of Spain, José María Díaz Taboada, head of the Money Laundering Prevention Unit at the CNMV, and Carolina Lameiro Medina, coordinator of the Deputy Directorate General of Inspection Area at DGSFP.
The second round table, which addressed developments and challenges in financial intelligence, was moderated by Cristina Freijanes, Secretary General of Unacc. The speakers, Adolfo Bescós, head of the Operational Intelligence Division at Sepblac, Juan Carlos Calleja, head of the Strategic Intelligence Division at Sepblac, Juan Alfonso Domenech, Director of Regulatory Compliance at ABANCA, and Francisco Sabe, AML Manager of Financial Crime Prevention at BBVA, addressed different topics such as new types of crime associated with money laundering or the innovative public-private exchange protocol (PPE) against money laundering and fraud, highlighting the importance and need to continue designing coordination instruments between authorities and obliged entities due to the effectiveness they can bring to the prevention of criminal activities.
The third and final table, which was moderated by María Peco, Legal Affairs and Money Laundering Prevention Advisor at AEB, dealt with current regulatory issues both in Spain and in the European Union, such as the imminent European legislative package and the future implementation in Spain of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). Other relevant matters were also addressed, such as the new obligation to declare virtual IBANs and the recently published report on sanctions imposed on obliged entities. Participants included Sergio Tresguerres, Deputy Director of the Deputy Directorate General of Inspection and Control of Capital Movements of the Treasury, José María Díaz Taboada, head of the Money Laundering Prevention Unit at the CNMV, Antonio Paredes, head of the Non-Financial Entities Inspection and Technical Secretariat Division at Sepblac, and Gemma Serrano, from the Money Laundering Prevention Unit at Caja Rural del Sur.
The sectoral conference was closed with the presentation by Pedro Comín, Director of Sepblac, who concluded by summarizing the main topics addressed in each of the tables and highlighting the value of each of the experts. “Public-private collaboration is key, as is coordination between supervisors. An example can be seen in the usefulness of these sectoral conferences so that together we ‘close the doors’ to criminal organizations,” he explained.
