Summary: Directive (EU) 2024/1640 on the mechanisms to be put in place by Member States for the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing (AMLD6) (from 2027)
EU Anti-Money Laundering (AML/CFT)
WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE DIRECTIVE?
Directive (EU) 2024/1640 aims to strengthen national anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorism-financing policies by setting out rules on:
- requirements relating to certain service providers and to the granting of residence rights in exchange for investment;
- checks on the senior management and beneficial owners [1] of certain obliged entities [2];
- risk assessments at the European Union (EU) and national levels;
- the setting up of registers (central beneficial ownership registers, bank account registers and electronic data retrieval systems) and on a single access point to real estate information;
- the responsibilities and tasks of financial intelligence units (FIUs) and anti-money-laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) supervisors;
- cooperation between authorities with competencies in the domain of preventing and combating money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF).
KEY POINTS
EU Member States:
- may decide to apply all or part of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 to other activities they consider exposed to money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks, informing the European Commission, justifying the decision and assessing the impact of such application on the provision of services within the internal market;
- ensure:
- currency exchange or cheque cashing offices and trust or company service providers are licensed or registered,
- providers of gambling services are regulated,
- other obliged entities comply with minimum registration requirements to enable supervisors to identify them;
- must mitigate money-laundering risks, if they grant residency rights in exchange for an investment, by:
- putting in place a risk management process, overseen by a designated authority, to identify, classify and mitigate risks,
- applying measures, including checks on an applicant’s profile and source of wealth with verification against existing records and periodic reviews of medium and high-risk applicants,
- publishing a public annual report on the number of applications, applicants’ countries of origin, residence permits granted or rejected and any change in the financial risks identified,
- informing the Commission by of all the measures taken;
- require supervisors to check that senior management in obliged entities are of good repute, act with honesty and integrity and are equipped to do their job.
Risk assessments
The Commission:
- assesses the risks of cross-border money laundering, of terrorist financing and of non-implementation and evasion of targeted financial sanctions affecting the internal market and relating to cross-border activities;
- must draw up a public report of its findings by , updating it every four years, or more frequently if needed.
Member States:
- carry out national risk assessments to identify, assess, understand and mitigate the risks of ML/TF and non-implementation and evasion of targeted financial sanctions;
- keep the assessments up to date and review them every four years;
- designate an authority to coordinate their response to the risks of money laundering, terrorist financing and the non-implementation and evasion of targeted financial sanctions;
- keep comprehensive statistics on the effectiveness of their AML/CFT structure.
Central beneficial ownership registers
Member States ensure:
- beneficial ownership information is adequate, accurate and up to date, and is held in a central national register;
- the central beneficial ownership registers are interconnected via the European Central Platform;
- competent national authorities and the Authority for Anti-Money-Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA) have immediate, unfiltered, direct and free access to the information without alerting the subject of the search;
- individuals and organisations able to demonstrate a legitimate interest, such as journalists, civil-society bodies, academia and various authorities, have access to information on, for example, the name, nationality, country of residence, and nature and extent of the beneficial interest held by the owner;
- safeguards are in place to restrict access to personal information where the owner is a minor or could be at risk of fraud, kidnapping, blackmail, extortion, harassment, violence or intimidation.
Information on payment, bank, securities and crypto-asset accounts and safe-deposit boxes
Member States ensure:
- centralised automated mechanisms (central registers or electronic data retrieval systems) are in place to identify holders of payment accounts, bank accounts identified by an international bank account number (IBAN) (including virtual IBANs), securities accounts, crypto-asset accounts and safe-deposit boxes;
- the interconnection of the centralised automated mechanisms through the Bank Account Registers’ Interconnection System that will be developed and operated by the Commission;
- the details are fully available to FIUs, AML/CFT supervisors and AMLA.
Real estate information
Member States:
- establish a single access point for information on the ownership of real estate property that the relevant authorities may access directly and for free;
- ensure the information contains the following minimum details:
- property – cadastral information, geographical location, area/size and type of property,
- ownership – name of the individual, legal entity or legal arrangement and purchase price,
- legal claims (encumbrances) - mortgages, judicial restrictions, property rights or other guarantees,
- history – ownership, price and related encumbrances,
- relevant documents.
Financial intelligence units
Each Member State establishes an FIU to prevent, detect and effectively combat money laundering, its predicate offences and terrorist financing. The FIU:
- is a single central unit responsible for receiving and analysing suspicious transaction reports filed by obliged entities;
- disseminates the results of its analyses to the relevant competent authorities when it suspects ML/TF;
- appoints a fundamental rights officer to ensure compliance with the law;
- has immediate and direct access to a range of financial, administrative and law enforcement information;
- responds to requests for information and provides this spontaneously to AML/CFT supervisors;
- can act immediately to suspend or withhold consent to a transaction or an account it considers linked to ML/TF;
- may instruct obliged entities to monitor transactions or activities they manage for anyone presenting a significant risk;
- presents an annual report containing information on its work and on trends and typologies identified;
- cooperates with other FIUs and carries out joint analyses of suspicious transactions and activities.
Anti-money-laundering supervision
National supervisors:
- ensure obliged entities comply with their obligations stemming from the EU AML/CFT regime;
- provide information on ML/TF (e.g. the Commission risk assessment, national or sectoral risk assessments, relevant guidelines and recommendations issued by AMLA) to the obliged entities under their supervision;
- apply a risk-based approach to supervision;
- inform the FIU promptly of any relevant facts or findings;
- establish dedicated AML/CFT supervisory colleges when a group of credit or financial institutions operates in at least two different Member States or a non-EU credit or financial institution has set up establishments in at least three Member States.
Member States ensure:
- fines are imposed on obliged entities for serious, repeated or systematic breaches of the law;
- supervisors can apply administrative measures such as recommendations, specific corrective measures and business restrictions backed by periodic penalty payments for non-compliance;
- policymakers, FIUs, supervisors, including AMLA, and other relevant authorities cooperate, especially to combat ML/TF and implement targeted financial sanctions.
AMLA, cooperating with the European Central Bank, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, Europol (the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation), Eurojust (the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation) and the European supervisory authorities, issues cooperation and procedure guidelines.
The 3 European supervisory authorities (ESAs) are:
- the European Banking Authority (EBA);
- the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA); and
- the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
Final provisions
The Commission:
- has the power to adopt delegated acts for an indeterminate period as from ;
- reports to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union by , and every three years thereafter, on the implementation of the directive.
The directive amends Directive (EU) 2019/1937 and amends and repeals Directive (EU) 2015/849 from .
FROM WHEN DO THE RULES APPLY?
The directive has to be transposed into national law in phases and the rules apply from .
Certain rules (e.g. those pertaining to central beneficial ownership registers) have to be transposed by , and others (e.g. the setting up of the Bank Account Registers’ Interconnection System) by .
BACKGROUND
For further information, see:
- Stronger EU rules to fight financial crime (European Commission).
KEY TERMS
- Beneficial owners. Any natural person who ultimately owns or controls a legal entity or an express trust or similar legal arrangement.
- Obliged entities. Private sector entities obliged to comply with the requirements stemming from the EU AML/CFT framework (e.g. credit and financial institutions, auditors, external accountants, tax advisors, notaries, lawyers and other legal professionals carrying out certain activities, providers of gambling services, traders in luxury goods, professional football clubs and football agents).
MAIN DOCUMENT
Directive (EU) 2024/1640 of the European Parliament and of the Council of on the mechanisms to be put in place by Member States for the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937, and amending and repealing Directive (EU) 2015/849.
RELATED DOCUMENTS
Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 establishing the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing
Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 on information accompanying transfers of funds and certain crypto-assets.
Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law.
Directive (EU) 2018/843 amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing.
Directive (EU) 2017/1132 relating to certain aspects of company law (codification).
Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing.
Directive (EU) 2015/2366 on payment services in the internal market, amending Directives 2002/65/EC, 2009/110/EC and 2013/36/EU and Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010.
Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market.
Directive 2014/59/EU establishing a framework for the recovery and resolution of credit institutions and investment firms and amending Council Directive 82/891/EEC, and Directives 2001/24/EC, 2002/47/EC, 2004/25/EC, 2005/56/EC, 2007/36/EC, 2011/35/EU, 2012/30/EU and 2013/36/EU, and Regulations (EU) No 1093/2010 and (EU) No 648/2012, of the European Parliament and of the Council.
Directive 2014/92/EU on the comparability of fees related to payment accounts, payment account switching and access to payment accounts with basic features.
Directive 2013/36/EU on access to the activity of credit institutions and the prudential supervision of credit institutions and investment firms, amending Directive 2002/87/EC.
Council Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA on the organisation and content of the exchange of information extracted from the criminal record between Member State.
Disclaimer
The e-Legal AML/CFT AI Consultant provides exclusively informational and advisory services: it clarifies AML/CFT legal requirements, conducts a legal analysis of the content of submitted internal documents within the scope of an agreed-upon assignment, and prepares recommendations and draft amendments that are purely advisory in nature.
The e-Legal AML/CFT AI Consultant does not assume the role of the person responsible for ensuring a client’s AML/CFT compliance; it does not approve, implement, or monitor the ongoing execution of a client’s policies and procedures; it does not conduct due diligence on clients or beneficial owners, assess the risks of specific clients or transactions, monitor transactions, make decisions regarding the execution or suspicious nature of transactions, submit mandatory reports to the SPCSB, perform statutory AML audits, or certify that a client’s operations comply with AML/CFT requirements. Furthermore, the service does not include the preparation, execution, or facilitation of financial, property, or corporate transactions for the client, the formation or management of companies, the management of assets or accounts, or the provision of fiduciary services.
The outcome of the consultation is limited to a legal assessment of the submitted documents as of an agreed-upon date; it does not confirm that the client has effectively fulfilled AML/CFT requirements, nor does it replace the performance of obligations by the client or their authorized representatives. The use of the consultant’s name or its findings as confirmation of a client’s full AML/CFT compliance—or the designation of the consultant as the party responsible for such compliance—is not permitted.
