The new European authority for the fight against money laundering will be operational in 2023
Within the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, on July 20, 2021 the European Commission presented a package of measures to strengthen the EU AML/CTF rules. The proposals form part of the commitments undertaken in its Action Plan for a comprehensive Union policy on preventing these types of crimes, approved on May 7, 2020.
El paquete de nuevas medidas consta de cuatro propuestas de la Comisión:
The package of new measures consists of four proposals by the Commission:
- Regulation for the establishment of a New European Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA). It will be tasked with setting common European standards, and supervising financial institutions acting in several EU countries. The new authority’s functions include:
- Coordinating and supervising national authorities to achieve high quality supervision that will ensure correct and consistent application of EU rules.
- Supervising directly a few financial institutions operating in a number of member states or which have a significant risk profile.
- Promoting cooperation between national financial information units, by facilitating communication and joint analyses by them, to better identify illegal cross-border financial flows.
- Regulation that will harmonize European AML/CTF rules in the form of a single set of rules. This is to be achieved through directly applicable rules defining a single list of obliged entities for all member countries, and proposing uniform due diligence rules applying to clients and beneficial owners. It also includes a Europe-wide 10,000 euro limit on cash payments.
- VI Directive which will replace the Directive (EU) 2015/849 (4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive, as amended by the 5th Directive) currently in force, which contains provisions that will be included in national legislation, such as rules on national supervisors and financial intelligence units in the member states.
- Revision of Regulation 2015/847/EU, approved in 2015, on transfers of funds in relation to crypto-asset transactions which will allow them to be traced.
These proposals will help to establish much more consistent rules on facilitating compliance with AML/CTF requirements, especially for obliged entities operating in several member states.
The package will be debated by the European Parliament and the Council, and a swift legislative process is expected. The future anti-money laundering authority will be created in 2023 but not be fully operational until 2026.
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