Europol launches new European Financial and Economic Crime Centre

On 5 June 2020, the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) announced that it had officially launched the European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC). The EFECC will help combat financial and economic crimes across the EU by providing a platform and toolbox for financial investigators across EU Member States. It will also assist the European Public Prosecutor Office in its investigations and prosecution of financial crimes when the Office becomes operational at the end of 2020.

The EFECC will sit within the current organisational structure of Europol and concentrate all financial intelligence and economic crime capabilities within a single entity. The unit is staffed by 65 international experts and analysts, and will lend operational support and analytical capacity for investigations into financial crime, with the objective of reinforcing operational effectiveness, increasing operational visibility, and enhancing stakeholder management and funding opportunities.

The impact of COVID-19 and the agility of criminals to adapt their behaviour to exploit fears,vulnerabilities and weakened economies has been highlighted by Europol and the EU Commission as an important example of the need for the EFECC. In Europol’s report on financial crimes in the EU (the Report), Executive Director of Europol, Catherine De Bolle stated: “Economic and financial crime, such as various types of fraud, money laundering, intellectual property crime, and currency counterfeiting, is particularly threateningduring times of economic crisis. The European Economic and Financial Crime Centre (EFECC) at Europol will strengthen Europol’s ability to support Member States’ and partner countries’ law enforcement authorities in fighting the criminals seeking to profit from economic hardship.”

The Report provides an overview of the most threatening phenomena in the area of economic and financial crime, including various types of fraud, the production and distribution of counterfeit goods and money laundering. Among others, a notable area of risk detected by Europol is the growing relationship between cryptocurrencies and money laundering activities.

The establishment of the EFECC forms part of the European Commission’s Action Plan(Action Plan) for a comprehensive Union policy on preventing money laundering and terrorist financing. The Action Plan, issued on7 May 2020, sets out the roadmap to developing the EU’s AML and CTF framework, namely through:

• effective implementation of existing rules;
• a single EU rulebook;
• EU-level supervision;
• a support and cooperation mechanism for financial intelligence units;
• better use of information to enforce criminal law; and
• a stronger EU in the world.

The Action Plan also sets out a timeline of steps to be taken to support the ability of the EFECC and respective Member States’ enforcement authorities to fulfil their mandate. The primary means to provide this support will be through EU-wide AML/CTF legislation, which is scheduled to be proposed in the first quarter of 2021.