Brussels (Brussels Morning) – The European Council adopted new anti-money-laundering rules to protect the EU against money laundering and terrorism financing, enhancing regulations, and supervisory measures, and extending coverage to sectors like crypto and luxury goods.
The European Council assumed a package of new anti-money-laundering rules that will shield EU citizens and the EU’s financial approach against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
How Are New EU Regulations Targeting Money Laundering?
With the new package, all rules involving the private sector will be transferred to a fresh directly applicable regulation, while a directive will deal with the association of national competent authorities fighting against money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).
Will EU’s New Rules Strengthen Anti-Money Laundering Efforts?
According to the European Council, the regulation exhaustively coordinates anti-money laundering regulations for the first time throughout the EU, shutting loopholes for fraudsters. It extends the anti-money laundering regulations to newly obliged entities, such as most of the crypto-sector, retailers of luxury goods and football clubs and agents. The regulation also places tighter due diligence requirements, holds beneficial ownership and puts a limit of € 10.000 on cash payments, among other things.
What Changes Will the EU’s New Anti-Money Laundering Rules Bring?
The directive will enhance the organisation of national anti-money laundering systems setting out clear directions on how financial intelligence units (FIUs – the national bodies which manage information on suspicious or unusual financial activity in nation-states) and supervisors work together.
What Role Will AMLA Play in EU’s Anti-Money Laundering Strategy?
The package from a new European Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA) will have immediate and indirect supervisory controls over high-risk obliged entities in the financial sector.
Given the cross-border essence of financial crime, the new authority will increase the efficiency of the AML/CFT framework by building an integrated mechanism with national supervisors to ensure obliged entities concede with AML/CFT-related commitments in the financial sector. AMLA will also have a supportive role concerning the non-financial sector, and harmonise and support FIUs.
In addition to supervisory powers and to assure compliance, in cases of severe, systematic or repeated violations of directly applicable requirements, the Authority will inflict pecuniary sanctions on the selected obliged entities.
The new anti-money laundering directive also stipulates that EU member states make data from centralised bank account registers – including data on who has which bank account and where – available via a single access point. As the AML directive will deliver access to the single access point only to FIUs, the Council assumed a separate directive to assure that the national law enforcement management will have access to these registers through the single access point. This directive also contains the harmonisation of the bank statement format. Such direct access and usage of harmonised formats by the banks is an essential instrument in fighting criminal offences and in steps to trace and confiscate the proceeds of crime.
