On Tuesday 19 March, members of the European Parliament’s Committees on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and on Civil Liberties (LIBE) approved the provisional agreements with the EU Council on the three texts of the money laundering package.
With 74 votes in favour, 5 against and 5 abstentions, MEPs approved the agreement on the sixth revision of the directive (AMLD 6). The strengthened regulation (AMLR) was approved with 71 votes in favour, 9 against and 4 abstentions (see EUROPE 13335/36). The new regulation will apply to the private sector, while the directive will deal with the organisation of institutional AML/CFT systems at national level in the Member States.
“The new legislation will change the rules of the game and help prevent financial scandals. Good news for citizens and businesses, bad news for oligarchs, terrorists and other criminals”, commented the S&D Group on X (formerly Twitter).
With 68 votes in favour, 10 against and 5 abstentions, the MEPs also approved the agreement on the directive establishing the new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA). For the first time, the seat of this new authority was decided jointly by the co-legislators, who opted for Frankfurt am Main, Germany (see EUROPE 13356/14).
In particular, the AMLA will be tasked with directly supervising certain types of credit and financial institutions, including crypto-asset service providers, if they are considered high risk or operate cross-border (see EUROPE 13313/12).
The texts still have to be formally approved by the European Parliament at its April plenary session and by the EU Council.
Read the final agreement on AMLD: https://aeur.eu/f/bet; on AMLR: https://aeur.eu/f/bes; on AMLA: https://aeur.eu/f/beu (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)