European Union governments have reached a preliminary deal to clamp down on money laundering by strengthening bank supervision through the European Banking Authority (EBA), an EU statement said on Wednesday.

Under the agreed text, as a last resort if national authorities do not act, the EBA would be able to directly force individual banks to take measures against money laundering.

The move followed recent cases of alleged money laundering in some EU banks that "have raised concerns that anti-money laundering rules are not always supervised and enforced effectively across the EU," the statement said.

The text needs approval of the EU parliament before becoming law.