On 31 January 2022, the European Banking Authority (EBA) launched ‘EuReCA’, its central database for anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT). EuReCA will contain information on material weaknesses in individual financial institutions in the EU that Member State competent authorities have identified. Competent authorities will also be reporting the measures they have imposed on financial institutions to rectify those material weaknesses.

The EBA will use information from EuReCA to inform its view of money laundering/terrorist financing (ML/TF) risks affecting the EU financial sector. It will also share information from EuReCA with competent authorities as appropriate, to support them at all stages of the supervisory process. In this regard, EuReCA will act as an early warning tool, which will help competent authorities to act before ML/TF risk crystallise.

EuReCA has been established based on provisions in article 9a (1) and (3) of the EBA Regulation and in the draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on a central database on AML/CFT in the EU that were published on the EBA’s website on 20 December 2021.

EuReCA will not start to collect personal data until the approval of the draft RTS by the European Commission.