There is great joy as the EU is finally turning Frankfurt into the “capital of the euro”. It’s time for Germany to finally take the fight against dirty money seriously.
In the end, it was a bit surprising that Frankfurt, of all places, won the race for the headquarters of the new European anti-money laundering authority. After all, Germany has never been a serious pioneer in the fight against dirty money. Worse still: Germany is considered one of the world’s favorite safe havens for money acquired through crime – thanks to lax cash regulations and sometimes inadequately equipped law enforcement. It recently emerged that a criminal clan had managed to recruit an employee of the Bonn anti-money laundering authority Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) as an informant who apparently had access to sensitive information.