“In recent years, financial service providers around the world suffered large losses and had to pay fines, because weaknesses in the management of non-financial risks materialised like operational risks, conduct and compliance risks, cyber risks and reputational risks,” warned Helmut Ettl, the Executive Director of the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), at the opening of the FMA’s “5th Workshop on Compliance & the Prevention of Money Laundering.” To illustrate the range of such misconduct, Ettl recalled the money laundering scandals of recent years, the “mis-selling” of mortgage loans in the USA, the LIBOR scandal, extortionist cyber attacks or most recently, the investigations into greenwashing against international investment banks and investment funds. “The management of non-financial risks is no longer “nice to have”, it has become absolutely necessary,” remarked Ettl unequivocally: “where such risks materialise, they have a direct impact on the economic stability and the reputation of a company; in the most extreme circumstances, they may even place the reputation of the entire financial centre in doubt, and become systemically relevant in the process.”
“5th FMA Workshop on Compliance and Money Laundering”
Around 130 risk and compliance managers and anti-money laundering officers from supervised entities participated physically at today’s “5th FMA Workshop on Compliance and Money Laundering” in Vienna, with it also being possible to follow the event via a live stream on the FMA website in real-time. The FMA’s experts reported about the current international and national regulatory developments in the areas of compliance, conduct supervision and the prevention of money laundering, and discussed them with market representatives. The focus was on the European Union’s anti-money laundering package, which on the one hand includes the establishment of a separate EU supervisory authority, AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering Authority). On the other hand, for the first time there is a directly applicable EU Money Laundering Regulation, which harmonises the EU-wide regime for the prevention of money laundering as far as possible. In addition the ongoing developments regarding the requirements for the distribution of securities and insurance products, especially taking into consideration sustainability aspects. It also addressed current developments: regarding the extension of conduct supervision in the areas of virtual currencies and crypto assets.
“We are currently in a very dynamic environment,“ summarised Ettl and referred to the most current challenges, such as sustainability, the avoidance of greenwashing, digital transformation and the associated increased in complexity arising from new financial market players – with the buzzword “virtual assets” and new threat scenarios arising due to cyber risks.” The market and supervision alike faces challenges in this regard. The FMA in any case remains fully committed to the further harmonisation and Europeanisation of regulation and supervision, also with regard to the management of non-financial risks. As an integrated supervisory authority, which supervises the entire Austrian financial market from under a single roof, it is optimally positioned for this purpose. “Our approach to supervision is also strongly built on dialogue and prevention, so that ideally the kinds of risks that endanger substance and/or stability do not arise in the first place,” remarked the FMA’s Executive Director.
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43 (0)676 88249516
+43 (0)1 249 59 – 6006