Italy’s Bruna Szego picked as chair of new EU dirty-money watchdog

STRASBOURG — Italy’s Bruna Szego was chosen as the chair of the EU’s new dirty-money watchdog on Monday following a three-hour hearing before the European Parliament’s economy and justice committees and an ensuing debate on the pick, three people close to the confidential talks told POLITICO.

Szego secured a majority to defeat rival candidates Marcus Pleyer of Germany and Jan Reinder De Carpentier of the Netherlands, despite lacking the support of the center-right European People’s Party, the largest group in the Parliament, or of the Greens, the people told POLITICO. (The EPP and the Greens had wanted Pleyer, the former chairman of the FATF, an international body that monitors anti-money laundering provisions.)

Szego, the only woman in the race, founded and leads the anti-money laundering (AML) supervision and regulation unit at the Bank of Italy, having previously headed its regulation and macroprudential analysis directorate. She sits on the EBA’s anti-money laundering standing committee; one of her strengths is linking macroprudential and AML risks.

The new single Anti Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), and the governance system it introduces, are designed to grant it sufficient independence from national regulators to allow it to intervene when country watchdogs fail. It comes after Europe experienced a series of dirty money scandals.

The new Frankfurt-based body will hire some 450 staffers and will begin direct supervision of high-risk financial entities as of January 2028, with the EU’s new anti-money laundering rules starting to take effect six months earlier.

The choice of Szego by lawmakers is the crucial step in the AMLA chair selection process. MEPs will now signal their choice to the Commission, which will script an official proposal. The two committees will then hold a public hearing with the final candidate, who will also need the backing of EU governments.

Olivier Salles, the EU official handling procedures “to deliver the initial [AMLA] start-up” said last week he hoped the body’s chair could “be appointed in January” to take up their duties as quickly as possible, and that a decision on the AMLA executive board could be taken in February.