The EU should close loopholes used by organised crime to move dirty money, MEP David Casa has told a debate on money laundering. 

Casa said the FinCen Files - a cache of thousands of documents that banks sent to the US authorities about suspicious transactions - gave a snapshot into how criminal organisations moved money through banks. 

“They can give us an insight into regulatory vulnerabilities and what must be done to address them”, Casa, who is the EPP standing rapporteur on Anti-Money Laundering within the Committee for Economic and Monetary Affairs, said.

“What we are seeing is the increasing practice of certain banks filing large amounts of suspicious transaction reports to financial intelligence units," he said.

"These huge numbers have an impact on the ability of authorities to investigate effectively. Banks then continue to allow obvious cases of transactions benefitting criminal organisations to go ahead.”

This system, Casa said, is defective and must be addressed.

“Our objective is not to create unnecessary administrative costs. And it is certainly not to make it impossible for honest business to operate. Our objective must be that of identifying how criminals launder their money, putting a stop to it and bringing them to justice,” he said.

Casa reiterated his call for a single EU rulebook on anti-money laundering that could also address these practices adding that a new anti-money laundering regulation should be proposed as soon as possible.