Compliance: Outsourcing and reliance on third parties in anti-money laundering

The scope of the fight against money laundering continues to grow both ratione materiae and ratione personae. This growth seems, however, to be more quantitative than qualitative. In any case, it generates costs for the entities subject to it. To mitigate these costs, and in the interest of efficiency, some entities can outsource almost all of their obligations. However, in the past, only banking and financial entities could resort to third party reliance for their customer due diligence obligations. In addition to third party reliance, the outsourcing of customer due diligence has gradually been allowed. This being said, Decree No. 2018-284 of April 18, 2018, the implementing decree of Ordinance No. 2016-1635 of December 1, 2016, transposing the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, has completely liberalized outsourcing possibilities. This development raises a number of questions regarding the principle of legality and the principle of equality before the law, and above all it questions the efficiency of the French approach, which seems committed to a quantitative rather than a qualitative growth of anti-money laundering obligations.