ADM's Liberato calls for equal EU anti-money-laundering rules for licensees

Stella Liberato of Italy's ADM said the EU anti-money-laundering reform will apply the same obligations to gambling operators as to banks and financial intermediaries. Speaking on the sidelines of the anti-money-laundering forum held in Milan, Liberato said the reform is historic and changes the rules of the game, according to the report.

Liberato said the new AMLA authority will set a single body of rules common to all member states, while each country remains autonomous in managing its market. She said regulation will be homogeneous and harmonisation greater, and that a French, Spanish or German licensee will be subject to the same rules as an Italian one, at least on anti-money-laundering, which should reduce national fragmentation and support more equal competitive conditions among European operators.

She said more than one authority per country is involved in anti-money-laundering. In Italy, alongside the UIF, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Guardia di Finanza and ADM take part. Liberato said the new package, in line with the Sixth Directive, is identifying supervisory authorities for the non-financial sector, including gambling, opening a new division of competences and strengthening duties of cooperation and information exchange among national authorities and with the new European authority.

Liberato said AMLA will define harmonised rules and issue common directives, and that the Italian authorities already work in coordination, with that work then brought to European level. She declined to detail ADM's future competences because the implementing decree of the Sixth Anti-Money-Laundering Discipline is still being issued, but said the agency has layered and precise technical expertise on gambling that it will make available to the European authority.

For licensees, Liberato said the new discipline will be more intrusive, with authorities able to enter business decisions and ask about the composition of governance. She said greater transparency of licensee information towards supervisors is planned, and that when the rule takes effect licensees will have to account to ADM for their internal choices on governance members, which she described as an intrusive power that also helps ensure licensees remain on the market.

According to the report, those who do not comply with anti-money-laundering rules or the fit-and-proper requirements for company officers risk expulsion from the market and serious reputational damage. Operators already within the perimeter of the future rules are therefore at an advantage and can count on equal conditions with operators in other member states. Liberato concluded that the new package requires an effort from all, authorities and licensees, and that the effort is intended to produce benefits for the economic system not only in Italy but in Europe and globally.