France and Germany Move to Block Flow of Money to ISIS
|
Version 0 of 1. BERLIN — France and Germany on Wednesday announced moves intended to choke off cash flowing to the Islamic State, and said they would encourage the other 26 European Union nations to do the same when they meet next week. The French finance minister, Michel Sapin, said that in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Mali, Egypt and Beirut, Lebanon, “we must act more quickly and more decisively.” The moves announced by Mr. Sapin included immediate efforts to speed up a crackdown on money laundering that had been scheduled to take effect in 2017. A faster and fuller exchange of banking data is needed in a world where even three hours’ notice could allow the authorities to foil a terrorist plot, Mr. Sapin said after talks with his German counterpart, Wolfgang Schäuble. The two ministers also vowed to crack down on the use of prepaid bank cards that they said enabled anonymous cash transfers, and to halt European purchases of antiquities that they said were stolen and then traded by the Islamic State. |