A political agreement at Council level has been reached on the proposed Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) and the new 6th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD6) pending first reading of such legislative texts at the European Parliament. The Council is now in a position to commence negotiations with the European Parliament, for the eventual agreement and adoption of the final version of the legislative texts.
Attention is to be given to a number of changes proposed by the Council. These include the following:
- The list of obliged entities (termed as 'subject persons' under national law) has increased to include persons trading in precious metals, precious stones, and cultural goods as well as jewellers, horologists, and goldsmiths where the value of the transaction or linked transactions amounts to at least EUR 10,000.
- Outsourcing rules have been further clarified, including in relation to which tasks may or may not be outsourced particularly in the context of collective investment schemes.
- More detailed rules on the scope of an obliged entity’s internal policies, procedures, and controls as well as on the compliance function of an obliged entity have been included.
- Beneficial ownership rules have been developed with the aim of harmonising as much as possible the interpretation of the elements of ‘ownership’ and ‘control’. These rules cover more clearly instances of beneficial ownership identification in the context of multi-layered structures not only for corporate and other similar legal entities, but also more specifically in the case of express trusts, foundations, and collective investment schemes. Rules on the identification of class of beneficiaries have also been further clarified.
- The FATF listings of monitored and high-risk jurisdictions, where these concern third countries, will be automatically replicated by the EU in two corresponding lists provided that certain criteria are satisfied. This is intended to avoid having to replicate the assessment and identification process performed by the FATF thereby ensuring a prompt transcription of the FATF listings.
Subject persons are once again reminded that the EU legislative procedure in relation to the above texts is still ongoing, and therefore the above changes are not to be considered as final. It is advised that where possible, any further developments in the negotiation process are followed by subject persons.
This information was originally published by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) on the 11th of January 2023.
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