The EU’s Fight against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in a Digital and Fragmented World

Money laundering (ML) poses a clear and present threat to citizens, democratic institutions and the financial system. The rules to prevent dirty money from being laundered through the financial system have grown into a huge regulatory framework. A selection of analytical and partly overlapping perspectives with specific challenges for the emerging regulatory framework is continuously identified and presented: Firstly, the increase in private–public cooperation where private actors have been involved in shaping the regulatory framework and been assigned “policing” tasks. Secondly, the exchange of information and the specific challenges posed by digitalisation. Thirdly, the interaction between administrative law and criminal law and different types of sanctions. Fourthly, the increased focus on EU security policy and the long-standing so-called securitisation of ML and terrorist financing (TF), which has led, among other things, to an increased competence for the EU institutions to regulate this area. What shortcomings and legal challenges remain, and are they addressed by the existing and recently updated instruments as well as recent legislative proposals, or is there room for further reform? These analytical and partly overlapping perspectives are addressed in this chapter followed by current reform proposals, and finally, the new EU legislative package and remaining challenges.