The European Banking Authority, the European Securities and Markets Authority and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority have published guidelines to govern the risk-based approach that national regulators ought to take to the problem of money laundering and terrorist finance.

Their guidelines form part of their continent-wide drive towards consistency in this area and are in line with the dictates of the Financial Action Task Force, the world's AML standard-setter whose headquarters are in the OECD building in Paris.
 
The risk-based supervision guidelines are addressed to national 'competent authorities' and come in 28 different languages. They require national regulators to identify and assess the 'ML/TF risk' to which their sector is exposed, and adjust the focus, intensity and frequency of supervisory actions in line with the risk-based approach that British banks already have to take. 'Money laundering risk' is defined neither in the UK's Joint Money-Laundering Steering Group's notes or in its Money Laundering Regulations 2007, but the EU uses the phrase to mean "the  level  of  money  laundering  and  terrorist financing risk before mitigation."

Competent authorities must implement the guidelines by incorporating them into their supervisory processes and procedures by this time next year.