For the next few years, the EC and its member countries will have less stringent laws on currency transactions and money laundering than the United States and Australia. As a result, financial institutions in the EC will be able to do business more economically and with fewer regulatory burdens than their U.S. counterparts. Similarly, businesspersons and organized crime groups should find the EC market easier for currency and other financial transactions due to the removal of barriers to travel and movement of trade and capital. As a result of their obligations to combat money laundering, the EC and member states will begin to take action that will significantly affect the operations of financial institutions, businesses, and individuals. Particularly, cooperative international criminal enforcement and international regulation of money laundering will produce new rules. Steps likely to be taken are uniform currency transactions reports; criminal referral reports for suspicious transactions; and laws on financial privacy, bearer instruments, and the identifying, tracing, freezing, seizing and forfeiting of assets. Money laundering legislation is examined for the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Luxembourg.