Banks are increasingly blocking “suspicious” money

Banks want to be sure that the money does not come from criminal operations. They have become extremely cautious and sometimes ask for evidence from more than thirty years ago. That no longer exists, tax lawyer Paul Verhaeghe explains to the newspaper. Bank statements, for example, only have to be kept for 10 years.

If there is a suspicion of money laundering, banks must report transactions to the Financial Intelligence Processing Unit (CFI). They are doing so increasingly often: 21,624 times in 2021, 28,379 times in 2022 and 40,129 times in 2023.

The cell then investigates them further and can report suspicious transactions to the public prosecutor. This happened 1,316 times last year, for a total of 2.4 billion euros. Pending the analysis, the money remains blocked.