Anti-Money Laundering Regulation AMLR

It covers three subjects, set out in Article 1. The first is the measures that obliged entities must apply to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. The second is beneficial ownership transparency for legal entities, express trusts and similar legal arrangements. The third is measures to limit the misuse of anonymous instruments.

The main change is the form of the law. EU anti-money laundering duties for businesses used to sit in a directive, Directive (EU) 2015/849, which each member state wrote into its own law. The recitals to the AMLR name the result as the main problem: a lack of direct applicability and a fragmented approach along national lines. A regulation is binding in its entirety and applies directly, so a firm in any member state reads the same text.

The AMLR is one part of a wider package. Two other instruments carry the same date, 31 May 2024. Directive (EU) 2024/1640, often called the sixth anti-money laundering directive, covers the mechanisms that member states must put in place. Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 establishes AMLA, the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism.

The businesses and professions that Article 3 lists as obliged entities. They fall into three groups: credit institutions, financial institutions, and a list of persons acting in the exercise of their professional activities.

That list includes auditors, external accountants and tax advisors, trust or company service providers, estate agents, traders in precious metals and stones, providers of gambling services and crowdfunding service providers. Notaries and lawyers are covered when they act for a client in a financial or real estate transaction. They are also covered when they help plan or carry out transactions such as buying and selling real property or business entities, managing client money, or creating companies, trusts and foundations.

Football agents and professional football clubs are on the list too, with a later start date.

The AMLR applies from 10 July 2027 (Article 90). It entered into force on 9 July 2024, the twentieth day after its publication in the Official Journal. Some provisions carry their own dates, shown in the table.

For most firms the date that matters is 10 July 2027. From then on, references in other laws to Directive (EU) 2015/849 are read as references to the AMLR and to the new directive (Article 89).

The duties fall under four headings: internal controls, customer due diligence, reporting and records.

A firm must have written internal policies, procedures and controls, proportionate to its size and risks (Article 9). It must keep a documented business-wide risk assessment up to date (Article 10). It appoints a compliance manager from its management body and a compliance officer for day-to-day work. Where the size and nature of the firm justify it, one person may hold both roles (Article 11).

It must apply customer due diligence when it establishes a business relationship or carries out an occasional transaction of at least EUR 10,000 (Article 19).

It must report to the financial intelligence unit when it knows, suspects or has reasonable grounds to suspect that funds are the proceeds of criminal activity or are related to terrorist financing, whatever the amount (Article 69). Lawyers, notaries, auditors, external accountants and tax advisors are exempt for information they obtain while ascertaining a client's legal position or representing the client in judicial proceedings (Article 70(2)).

It must keep customer due diligence documents and transaction records for five years after the relationship ends (Article 77).