EPIF response to the EBA call for input on bank de-risking
EPIF would like to point that that most of the main money transfer operators (MTO) providing their services in Europe have experienced the unilateral closure of their bank accounts and the refusal to offer them banking services in breach of Article 36 PSD2 in different Member States. This poses an existential threat to their activities, employees and customers in that country and the continuation of this practice threatens to undermine the AML/CFT protections in place by driving MTOs out of the market and leading customers to use unlicensed illegal channels. Moreover, this process even more accelerated in the past months with the COVID-19 crisis.