Partnership in the fight against money laundering in Luxembourg

Aware of the challenges of the fight against money laundering, Luxembourg is keen to implement synergies between the public sector and the private sector. Thus, on September 13, 2022, a public-private partnership was signed between:

• The Association of Luxembourg Bankers (ABBL) – is the largest professional association in the financial sector;
• The CRF, Cellule de Renseignement Financier which acts as the Financial Intelligence Unit in Luxembourg – the national authority responsible for receiving and analysing suspicious transaction reports and other information concerning suspicious facts that may be linked to money laundering, predicate offenses or the financing of terrorism; and
• The CSSF, Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier – which is the competent authority for the prudential supervision of the entire Luxembourg financial market.

The objective of this collaboration is to clarify the risks associated with specific activities, types of offences and regulatory expectations by pooling the knowledge and skills of these authorities in the area of AML/CFT. For 3 years, work meetings have been organised, particularly in the banking field, by refining knowledge and assessment at the level of the granularity of the AML/CFT risk in this sector. This new Public/Private platform will make it possible to deepen knowledge of these risks thanks in particular to the expert representatives of these establishments but also to the chief compliance officers of the banking and private banking sector.

This type of platform will in the medium term allow banks to research types of money laundering patterns based on government information and it will also unify the forces of the public and private sectors in the fight against money laundering.