FRANKFURT - The European Central Bank defended its supervisory work on Thursday, arguing that it has no power to uncover money laundering even at lenders under its direct supervision.

The ECB is under fire over its handling of Latvian lender ABLV, which U.S. authorities have acused of engaging in large-scale money laundering for Russian clients.

"Breaches of anti-money laundering can be symptomatic of more deeply rooted governance deficiencies within a bank but the ECB does not have the investigative powers to uncover such deficiencies," ECB Bank supervisory chief Daniele Nouy said in a statement. "This is the task of national anti-money laundering authorities."

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Gareth Jones) ((Balazs.Koranyi@thomsonreuters.com; +49 69 7565 1244; Reuters Messaging: balazs.koranyi.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))