During their last session in Strasbourg, MEPs adopted a package of laws to strengthen the EU’s toolkit to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
The new laws ensure that people with a legitimate interest, including journalists, civil society organizations and watchdogs, will have immediate, direct and free access to information on beneficial owners held in national registers and interconnected at European Union level.
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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.
The new laws include measures for enhanced due diligence and customer identity checks, after which the so-called obliged entities (e.g. banks, asset and crypto-asset managers or real and virtual property agents) must report suspicious activities to the FIU and other competent authorities.
From 2029, top-level professional football clubs involved in high-value financial transactions with investors or sponsors, including advertisers and the transfer of players, will also have to verify the identity of their customers, monitor transactions and report any FIU suspicious transaction.
The legislation contains provisions for greater vigilance on the ultra-wealthy (total wealth worth at least €50,000,000 excluding their main residence), a pan-European limit of €10,000 on cash payments, except between private individuals in non-professional context, and measures to ensure compliance with targeted financial sanctions and avoid circumvention of sanctions.
To oversee the new anti-money laundering rules, a new authority will be set up in Frankfurt, the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Authority (AMLA).
It will be tasked with directly supervising the riskiest financial entities, intervening in cases of supervisory failure, acting as a central unit for supervisory authorities and mediating disputes between them. The authority will also supervise the application of targeted financial sanctions.
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Tags: European formula money laundering
