Over the past month, the co-operative, mild-mannered world of anti-money laundering, or AML, policymaking has descended into an international bar-room brawl. The fraying of global norms has affected the hitherto technical world of AML as it takes on an increasingly political hue.

For 30 years, global standards on tackling money-laundering and other forms of financial crime have been set by the Financial Action Task Force , a body made up of nearly 40, mainly rich, countries. Until recently, the FATF has enjoyed a monopoly on assessing countries’ AML standards and updating “grey lists” of those that fall short three times a year. The country representatives who attend FATF meetings — many of them veterans of years of attendance — guard this role jealously.

But last month, this monopoly faced a serious challenge as the European Commission — as required by the EU’s latest anti-money laundering directive — published its first list of countries that it believes represent a financial crime threat. The list contains not only the countries identified by the FATF itself, but an additional 11 jurisdictions, including Saudi Arabia and four US territories, that it believes warrant inclusion.