Dublin has failed in its bid to host the new EU anti-money laundering agency with Frankfurt being selected through a joint vote by member states and the European Parliament.
The agency, known as AMLA, will begin its operations in mid-2025 and will have a staff of over 400.
Frankfurt secured 28 votes out of a possible 54, beating Madrid, Paris and Rome, who had made it past the first round in a secret ballot.
It is understood that Dublin, which was one of nine competing cities, did not get past the first round of voting when member states held their ballot.
The authority will be part of the EU’s new anti-money laundering framework and will have direct and indirect supervisory powers over financial institutions.
Nine member states applied to host AMLA: Belgium (Brussels), Germany (Frankfurt), Ireland (Dublin), Spain (Madrid), France (Paris), Italy (Rome), Latvia (Riga), Lithuania (Vilnius) and Austria (Vienna).
Frankfurt was chosen jointly in a process involving member states and two committees of the European Parliament.
Minister for Finance Micheal McGrath and Minister of State for Financial Services Jennifer Carroll MacNeill presented a formal case for Dublin before a joint committee hearing in Brussels on January 30.
In a statement following the vote, Mr McGrath said: “I want to congratulate Frankfurt and the German Government on their success in winning this incredibly competitive race to host AMLA.
“From the outset, we were clear that our priority is to deliver on the AML package and we will work now with Germany, and all Member States to make AMLA a success.
“Ireland made a serious and very credible bid to bring the new authority to our capital city and I want to sincerely thank all of the support we received from fellow Member States and MEPs from the Parliament.”
He added: “It was clear to me from my discussions in recent days with Finance Minister colleagues from right across the EU that Ireland’s bid was well regarded and deemed to be of high quality.”
Also reacting to the announcement, Ms Carroll MacNeill said: “I’m proud of the work the Irish State put into our campaign.
“I sincerely thank everyone in the Irish financial services industry, colleagues in all political parties, our MEPs and government departments for campaigning on our AMLA bid.
“We made a really strong case for Ireland and put a lot of work into telling the story of Ireland, the capacity that we have to do something of this scale, how strong our financial services sector is and how committed Europeans we are.”
“The most important thing of all now is that AMLA works really well to disrupt the proceeds of crime across Europe,” she added.
EU financial services commissioner Mairead McGuinness said it was important to have “trust in the financial system and to route out illegal activities that fund money laundering and allow it to prevail.”
