The European Commission, the nearest thing that the European Union has to an executive branch, has almost completed its analysis of the risks of money laundering and terrorist finance that affect its 'internal market.'

The report is going to be based on several workshops that the commission has organised with experts from all over the European Union, EUROPOL and the private sector.

The commission told Compliance Matters: "The analysis will be about several risk scenarios concerning all the sectors covered by the Money Laundering Directive (i.e. all the obliged entities) but also some emerging or non-specifically covered sectors.

"As of January 2017, the commission will start its analysis of the possible mitigating measures that would be recommended to member states in order to address these identified money laundering and terrorist financing risks.

"As requested by the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive, member states will have to comply with such recommendations or explain the reasons why they decide to depart from them."

The report should be made public by June 2017 and, it is hoped, member states and the private sector will use them to 'feed' their own risk assessments.