The EU Council adopted, on Wednesday 7 December, its position on an anti-money laundering regulation and a new ‘AMLD6’ directive, which enlarges the scope of the existing regulatory framework and fill in any gaps.
Together with the proposed recast of the transfer of funds regulation, on which an agreement has already been reached with the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13040/29), these texts, once adopted, will form the new EU anti-money laundering rulebook.
“Our intention is to close these loopholes further, and to apply even stricter rules in all EU Member States”, said the Czech Minister of Finance, Zbyněk Stanjura, in a statement.
The EU Council’s position follows the European Commission’s original proposal (see EUROPE 12769/5) and provides for a ban on cash payments of more than €10,000. Member States will have the possibility to impose a lower maximum limit, if they so wish.
Crypto-assets service providers will have to verify facts and information about their customers. The EU Council required them to apply customer due diligence measures when carrying out transactions of €1,000 or more and added measures to mitigate the risks associated with transactions with self-hosted wallets.
The EU Council also introduced specific enhanced due diligence measures for cross-border correspondent relationships of crypto-assets service providers.
Money laundering through metals, gems and art will be made more difficult.
Third countries on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list will also be listed by the EU (see EUROPE 13057/2). Consequently, the Commission will not be required to repeat the identification process carried out by the FATF. The EU will then apply measures proportionate to the risks posed by the listed countries.
With regard to the beneficial ownership rules, the EU Council clarified that beneficial ownership is based on two components - ownership and control. The EU Council has detailed how to identify and verify the identity of beneficial owners for all types of entities, including non-EU ones. The provisions on data protection and document retention are also clarified in order to facilitate and speed up the work of the competent authorities.
In the European Parliament, the two rapporteurs of the text, Luděk Niedermayer (EPP, Czech) and Paul Tang (S&D, Dutch), reacted on Tuesday 6 December to the EU Court of Justice’s ruling of 22 November 2022 on limiting public access to beneficial ownership (see EUROPE 13068/28).
They said that this decision “can harm the ability of Member States’ authorities to effectively tackle money laundering and terrorist financing”.
The European Parliament is expected to take a position on the text in mid-March 2023.
To consult the Eu Council’s position: https://aeur.eu/f/4jr (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)