BRUSSELS: The European Parliament has adopted a package of laws strengthening the European Union’s toolkit to fight money-laundering and terrorist financing. The laws aimed at bolstering the EU’s defenses against illicit financial flows and protect its financial system from the misuse of funds for criminal activities.
The package of laws includes measures to ensure greater transparency and accountability in financial transactions, with a particular focus on beneficial ownership information. Under the new legislation, individuals and entities with a legitimate interest, including journalists, media professionals, civil society organizations, and supervisory bodies, will have unrestricted access to beneficial ownership information held in national registries, interconnected at the EU level.
Furthermore, Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) will be empowered with enhanced capabilities to analyze and detect money laundering and terrorist financing activities, including the authority to suspend suspicious transactions. Obliged entities, such as banks, asset managers, and real estate agents, will be subject to stringent due diligence measures and identity checks, with a mandate to report any suspicious activities to FIUs and other competent authorities.
The legislation introduces additional scrutiny for high-value financial transactions involving top-tier professional football clubs, requiring them to verify customer identities, monitor transactions, and report suspicious activities to FIUs.
To oversee the implementation of these new measures, the European Union will establish the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA) in Frankfurt. AMLA will serve as a central supervisory authority, tasked with directly overseeing the most high-risk financial entities, intervening in cases of supervisory failures, and mediating disputes between supervisors. Additionally, AMLA will play a crucial role in ensuring compliance with targeted financial sanctions and preventing their circumvention.
The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) package, comprising the sixth Anti-Money Laundering (AML) directive, the EU “single rulebook” regulation, and the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) regulation, was adopted by significant margins in the European Parliament. However, formal adoption by the Council is still required before the laws can be published in the EU’s Official Journal.
