European regulatory tightening: compliance becomes the new financial front

This month, the international financial landscape is dominated by an unprecedented tightening of operational regulation and the fight against financial crime, marked by the European anti-money-laundering authority's finalization of standards governing the private sector and the publication of final guidelines on third-party risks. In parallel, capital markets are facing major macroeconomic headwinds, characterized by a marked slowdown in US employment and heightened budgetary tensions in Europe.

Attention should be paid to the implementation of the European Union's new due diligence requirements, the evolving supervision of systemically important neobanks grappling with compliance challenges, and the outcome of the upcoming October multilateral meetings that will shape the coordination of monetary and global financial stability policies.

The European anti-money-laundering regulator finalizes its architecture for the private sector

The operational launch of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Authority (AMLA) reaches a decisive milestone. On 01/10/2026, the institution finalized several key technical standards intended for the private sector (Google News : site:amla.europa.eu, 01/10).

These publications notably include the regulatory technical standards (RTS) on customer due diligence (CDD) under Article 28(1) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 (Google News : site:amla.europa.eu, 01/10). AMLA also specified the criteria for identifying business relationships, occasional transactions and linked transactions (Google News : site:amla.europa.eu, 01/10).

On the international integration front, the authority published a fact sheet governing the minimum measures and supervisory actions to be adopted in the event of legal obstacles in third countries (Google News : site:amla.europa.eu, 01/10), supplemented by standards on supervisory cooperation between home and host countries (Google News : site:amla.europa.eu, 01/10). This new framework comes against a backdrop of a sharp rise in suspicious transaction reports (STRs), which are overwhelming Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) and necessitating a new approach based on the assessment of geographic risks (OpenAlex, 15/09).

Operational and third-party risk management tightens in Europe

Alongside AMLA's rollout, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published on 18/09/2026 its final guidelines on third-party risk management (EBA, communiqués, 18/09). This text, aligned with the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), introduces a two-year transition period to enable financial institutions to adapt to the new requirements for supervising their critical subcontractors.

This initiative directly responds to the conclusions of the autumn report published on 23/09/2026 by the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs), which bring together the EBA, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) (EBA, communiqués, 23/09). The report calls for heightened vigilance in the face of cyber threats, external technological dependencies and emerging systemic risks linked to private credit.

In the decentralized finance sector, the EBA also laid out on 25/09/2026 its operational priorities for the European Commission's forthcoming revision of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) (EU Law Live, 25/09).

Enhanced oversight and sanctions against banks' compliance failures

National and supranational supervisory authorities are displaying heightened severity in the face of governance failings. In Switzerland, the Finanzmarktaufsicht (Finma) imposed on 29/09/2026 heavy sanctions on wealth manager Julius Bär (FAZ - Aktuell, 29/09). The Swiss authority found serious failings in the institution's risk controls and compliance in connection with its exposures to the bankrupt Austrian real estate group Benko, prompting a thorough reorganization of the bank's management.

In the fintech sector, the neobank Revolut illustrates this duality between commercial expansion and compliance requirements. While its subsidiary Revolut Bank S.A. officially obtained a full credit institution licence from the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR) and the European Central Bank (ECB) on 10/08/2026 for the French market (alternatives-economiques.fr, 06/10), its operational ambitions remain constrained. As of 09/09/2026, the ECB was holding back the rollout of its mortgage offerings in France owing to internal problems and compliance failings, notably the non-declaration of certain accounts and the quality of anti-money-laundering alerts (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 09/09).

The cyber vulnerability of new financial players was also brought to light on 22/09/2026, when Revolut was targeted by a $3 million ransom attempt following the hacking of an Italian institutional account containing customer identification data (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 22/09).

Integrating physical and transition risks into financial stability

Sustainable finance is consolidating its methodological foundations. The Banque de France published on 04/08/2026 a working paper modelling the macroeconomic impact of nature-related risks (Banque de France, 04/08). The study demonstrates that water shortages and agricultural crises generate highly inflationary negative supply shocks and directly threaten the financial stability of bank portfolios exposed to the agri-food sector.

On the regulatory front, the European Commission published on 11/09/2026 an official communication clarifying the technical interpretation of the delegated act on the EU climate taxonomy (EUR-Lex, Environnement, 11/09). These clarifications aim to harmonize the application of technical screening criteria by issuers without amending the legal framework established by the sustainable investment regulation in March 2018.

Coordinated offensive against financial crime and sanctions evasion

The period was marked by an acceleration of investigations and asset seizures on an international scale:

• Russian sanctions evasion network: An investigation published on 22/09/2026 revealed that international banks, including Standard Chartered and Citigroup, processed billions of dollars (including $6.9 billion specifically mentioned) through a Kremlin-backed forgery scheme (FT News Briefing, 22/09).
• Money laundering in Europe: A Europe-wide police operation conducted on 30/09/2026 against the Hells Angels organization led to the seizure of €48.6 million in criminal assets in Germany (FAZ - Aktuell, 30/09).
• Multilateral coalition: On 22/09/2026, the fifteen governments of the Shield of the Americas coalition signed a joint declaration targeting the freezing of assets and sanctions against 24 criminal organizations (InSight Crime, 24/09).
• Embezzlement of public funds: A report published on 22/09/2026 by the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) identified 284 real estate properties in the United States, worth $271 million, linked to 61 current and former Nigerian officials, their families and associates (Premium Times Nigeria, 22/09).

Forums, rules and balances of power

The global regulatory landscape is being redrawn by the European Union's assertion as the leading setter of anti-corruption standards, as it seeks to fill the void left by the US retreat from the global fight against corruption (justsecurity.org, 29/09). The entry into force of European directive 2026/1021 in April 2026 and the activity of the new international task force uniting the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland illustrate this European ambition, although geopolitical tensions with Washington and Beijing threaten the uniformity of sanctions (justsecurity.org, 29/09).

At the same time, the cohesion of the eurozone is being tested by the slippage of French public finances. As of 28/09/2026, the prospect of a French budget deficit at 6.5% of GDP and the rise in the bond yield spread with Germany to 110 basis points were causing acute concern within the Eurogroup (FAZ - Aktuell, 28/09). This sovereign tension comes as yields on the German Bund have stabilized at a historically high level of 3.6% (FAZ - Aktuell, 30/09).

In the United States, monetary policy faces twofold pressure: on the one hand, Donald Trump's attacks demanding a rapid rate cut (FAZ - Aktuell, 04/09); on the other, signs of a slowdown in the real economy, marked by the creation of only 29,000 jobs in September and an unemployment rate of 4.2% (Washington Post, 02/10 ; NYT (Bluesky), 02/10).

To watch

• From 12/10 to 18/10/2026: Annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group in Bangkok (Thaïlande), focused on global financial stability and capital markets.
• 15/10/2026: Meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Bangkok (Thaïlande), dedicated to international regulatory coordination.
• From 26/10 to 30/10/2026: Plenary meetings of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Paris (France), with the revision of global money-laundering standards on the agenda.
• 29/10/2026: Monetary policy decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt (Allemagne).
• 18/12/2026: Expiry of the extension of the restructuring measures imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the Valsad Mahila Nagrik Sahakari Bank (RBI, n.d.).

Key takeaways

• AMLA finalized its technical standards on customer due diligence and the EBA its guidelines on third-party risks, establishing a new binding European framework.
• Regulators are toughening sanctions for compliance failings, targeting Julius Bär and holding back Revolut's credit offerings.
• France's budgetary slippage, with a deficit forecast at 6.5% of GDP, is undermining eurozone cohesion.

Photo: Nicholas Cappello / Unsplash