At the meeting, the Vice-Minister of Finance emphasized that the establishment of AMLA in our country would comply with the principle of geographical balance at the EU level and would send a signal of confidence in the current geopolitical context. In addition, the candidacy of Vilnius has many other advantages, including our country's competences and experience in managing risks in the financial sector.
"We are consistently working to gather support for the candidacy of Vilnius. After assessing Lithuania's advantages – accumulated risk management competences both in the traditional banking sector and in the Fintech segment, a large community of compliance experts, as well as the attractiveness of Vilnius to live and work for the institution's staff members and their family members – we believe that Vilnius would be the best home for the newly created EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority," noted M. Liutvinskas.
During his visit to Brussels, Vice-Minister of Finance M. Liutvinskas also met with Vice-Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament and the main rapporteur of the EP on AMLA Eva Maria Poptcheva, with whom he discussed the next stages of selection in order to reach a common agreement of the Council of the EU and the EP on the establishment of AMLA location.
AMLA will be the main institution ensuring a consistent and unified system for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing in the EU financial sector and coordinating actions with the national supervisory authorities of the Member States.
Please note that on 28 September, the EC officially published a call for EU countries to submit applications to host AMLA by the specified deadline of 10 November. For the first time, a proposal to establish a new EU-level Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Authority, which would be the main supervisory authority for the financial sector and coordinate actions with the national supervisory authorities of EU members, was presented on 20 July 2021.
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