Anti-money laundering regulations have costs and benefits for banks. To better understand how these regulations affect banks, we study the valuation effects of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4AMLD) on a sample of European banks. First, using eight significant 4AMLD-related events between the initial announcement (February 5, 2013) and the final enactment (June 26, 2015), we show that the 4AMLD had a positive valuation effect on European banks and helped reduce their systematic risk. Then, using a cross-sectional model, we find that the positive valuation effect was higher for riskier, larger, and more profitable banks with more non-traditional revenue streams, as well as banks operating in rich countries, countries with less effective corporate governance, and countries with higher perception of corruption. These findings provide a better understanding of how anti-money laundering regulations affect banks in order to assist regulators in shaping future policies, as well as bank managers and investors in making better financial and investment decisions.

反洗钱法规对银行有成本和收益。为了更好地理解这些法规对银行的影响，我们研究了第四反洗钱指令（4AMLD）对欧洲银行样本的估值影响。首先，我们使用了从最初宣布（2013年2月5日）到最终颁布（2015年6月26日）之间的8个重大4AMLD相关事件，我们证明了4AMLD对欧洲银行具有积极的估值作用，有助于降低其系统性风险。然后，使用横截面模型，我们发现，对于具有更多非传统收入流的风险更大，利润更大的银行，以及在富裕国家/地区，公司治理效率较低的国家/地区运营的银行，其正估值效应更高。 ，以及对腐败有较高认识的国家。