Immediately after the september attacks in New York, US regulators found the leverage to impose, by means of the FATF, a set of draconic rules. These would mean that all payment transfers had to be accompanied by the name/address of the payer. This measure against fraud/terror is of course useless. Who expects that B.Laden from Pakistan will send money in his own right...?
Still, such things then continue to become a rule in their own right. And US and EU have agreed to implement the so called Special Recommendation Number 7 (wire transfers). And, given the current UK chairmanship of Europe, and the bombs going off in London, UK decided to step up the pace. Consequently the Commission published its draft regulation this week; in mid-summer.
Meanwhile, Dutch government published a report on underground banking, undercutting the regulations completely. Conclusion: there is not much to be done to get these organisation to follow the regular bank rules. So if any terrorist needs to get his money somewhere, it'll get there...
