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The European Parliament (EP) adopted a package of laws strengthening the EU’s toolkit to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.
The new laws ensure that people with a legitimate interest, including journalists, media professionals, civil society organisations, competent authorities and supervisory authorities, will have immediate, unfiltered, direct and free access to beneficial owner information held in national registers and linked to EU level. In addition to current information, the registers will also include data for at least 5 years, reports Economi.bg.
The laws also give financial intelligence units (FIUs) more powers to analyze and detect cases of money laundering and terrorist financing, and to stop suspicious transactions.
Extensive due diligence
The new laws include enhanced due diligence measures and customer identity checks, after which so-called obliged entities (e.g. banks, asset and crypto asset managers or real and virtual estate agents) must report suspicious activities to the FIU and other competent authorities organs. From 2029, top-level professional football clubs involved in high-value financial transactions with investors or sponsors, including advertisers and player transfers, will also have to verify the identities of their customers, monitor transactions and report any suspicious FIU transaction.
The legislation also contains increased vigilance provisions for ultra-wealthy individuals (total wealth worth at least €50,000,000, excluding their main residence), an EU-wide limit of €10,000 EUR on cash payments other than between private individuals in a non-professional context and measures to ensure compliance with targeted financial sanctions and avoid circumvention of sanctions.
Central regulator
To oversee the new anti-money laundering rules, a new authority – the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Authority (AMLA) – will be set up in Frankfurt. AMLA will be tasked with directly supervising the riskiest financial entities, intervening in cases of supervisory lapses, acting as a central hub for supervisors and mediating disputes between them. AMLA will also control the application of targeted financial penalties.
The Anti-Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) package consists of the sixth Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Directive (adopted by 513 votes to 25 with 33 abstentions) , the Single EU Rulebook (adopted by 479 votes to 61 with 32 abstentions) and the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) Regulation (adopted by 482 votes to 47 “against” and 38 “abstained”).
next steps
Laws must also be formally adopted by the Council before being published in the EU’s Official Journal. With the adoption of the law, Parliament responds to citizens’ demands set out in the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe, in particular proposal 16(1) and 16(2) on the prevention of tax evasion and cooperation in the field of corporate taxation.
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