Economy New authority
Lindner plans to set up a financial crime agency from 2024
As of: 4:55 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner
What: REUTERS
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In an EU comparison, Germany is a paradise for money laundering. Finance Minister Christian Lindner is planning a counterattack with a new authority: from 2024, a financial crime agency with 1,700 employees is to be set up. Sanctions and terrorism supporters are also to be monitored.
From 2024, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) wants to set up a new authority to combat money laundering, which is comparatively widespread in Germany. This will lead to expenditures totaling 711 million euros in the period from 2024 to 2027, according to the corresponding draft bill. The 236-page document was presented to the Reuters and AFP news agencies on Monday “Handelsblatt” reported about it first.
After that, the establishment of a Federal Office to Combat Financial Crime (BBF) is planned. The authority is said to have 1,700 employees and locations in Cologne and Dresden. The aim is for the law to come into force in 2024 and for the authority to be established by 2025, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance in Berlin.
The previous anti-money laundering unit Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Central Office for Sanctions Enforcement (ZfS) are to be dissolved within the planned federal office by June 2025. The draft law expects costs of around 700 million euros by the end of 2027 to set up the new authority and its structures.
WELT research on money laundering
The centerpiece is to be a money laundering investigation center. It is supposed to take care of the large, international cases with a connection to Germany. “The establishment of a real estate transaction register is intended, among other things, to increase transparency in the vulnerable real estate sector and thereby improve the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, but also the enforcement of sanctions in the long term.”
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An international body of experts – the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – had attested Germany’s progress in combating money laundering in the summer of 2022, but still sees a need for improvement. There is a problem, especially in the implementation. The new law aims to improve this in the long term. Lindner had already announced the plans last year. However, there were already proposals for a new authority in the fight against money laundering under Lindner’s predecessor, today’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
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