Negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU Council met on Tuesday 14 November to discuss two texts from the legislative package on money laundering: the strengthened AMLR and the directive that will define the future European Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA). They covered some very technical points.
AMLR. According to a European source contacted by EUROPE, “not much progress has been made, all the points have been relegated to the technical level for further discussion and will be taken up again later at political level” (see EUROPE 13285/11).
The co-legislators discussed the issue of ‘non-fungible tokens’ (NFTs) and whether they should be included in the provisional regulation or in the ‘MiCA’ regulation on crypto-asset markets (see EUROPE 13289/31). According to the source, “the Council prefers the second option, once the Commission has produced its impact assessment on ‘MiCA’, in 2024”.
Similarly, the question of whether online platforms should be included in the scope has not been resolved, but it is unlikely that they will be. “The Council would prefer to leave them out, as they are already regulated elsewhere”, said the source.
With regard to football agents, the negotiators reached a general consensus on the need to regulate this sector, but the details still need to be discussed. The European Commission has produced a non-paper on the subject, which has been favourably received. However, the proposals it contains are not yet supported in their current form and require more detailed discussion.
Finally, with regard to identity verification for cash payments and cryptocurrency transactions between €1,000 and €10,000, “there is also a rather positive signal from both parties, but the details will still have to be decided”, the source stressed.
AMLA. The co-legislators discussed direct and indirect supervision of the financial sector, indirect supervision in the non-financial sector and common instruments (see EUROPE 13282/7).
According to the same source, “no decision has yet been taken” on the methodology for selecting high-risk financial institutions. They all agree that the preferred method will be the ‘residual risk method’, but they still have to decide how to create the methodology and when it will apply. In the meantime, AMLA will apply the ‘inherent risk method’.
Nine Member States have responded to the call for applications to host the organisation (see EUROPE 13291/29).
No date has yet been set for the next meeting. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)