In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie speaks about how to fight financial crime with Bruegel’s Nicolas Véron and James Freis, former chief compliance officer at Deutsche Börse and former head of FinCEN, the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The European Union is setting up its new Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA), which from 2028 will have a combination of supervisory and standard-setting duties. What does it mean to start a new EU agency? What effect will it have for prevention and enforcement in areas like fraud, tax evasion and other abuses? What is the EU’s history in this area, and what past weaknesses is the new agency trying to correct? Given such a big and important mandate, will AMLA have the resources to do its job?Related research: Freis, J. H. and M. Waibel (2024) ‘The United States-Led Development of Financial Sanctions Since 1945’, in C. Zilioli, R. Bismuth and L. Thévenoz (eds) International Sanctions: Monetary and Financial Law Perspectives, Brill Véron, N. (2025) ‘Updated assessment: Memo to the commissioner responsible for financial services’, First Glance, Bruegel Véron, N. and J. Kirschenbaum (2019) ‘A Major Step Toward Combating Money Laundering in Europe’, Blog Post, Bruegel Véron, N. and J. Kirschenbaum (2018) ‘A better European Union architecture to fight money laundering’, Policy Brief, Bruegel

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