On March 27, the European Parliament decided to tighten the rules on combating money laundering (AML), crime financing, and sanctions evasion in the EU.
The decision was made by the committees of ECON (on economic and monetary issues) and LIBE (committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs).
What changes are we talking about:
- Adopt a resolution establishing a pan-European regulatory body, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), which will be given supervisory and investigative powers to ensure compliance with AML requirements;
- Create a regulation that establishes requirements for customer verification, disclosure of information about beneficiaries, the use of crypto assets and work with them, as well as for Golden visa programs in the EU countries;
- Implement the 6th Directive on AML (The Directive reforms the national legislation of the participating countries in the field of supervision and regulation of the financial sector, and also provides for a certain level of access for regulators and financial intelligence to registers of beneficial ownership and information about assets located in free zones);
- Implement the MiCA regulation, which establishes the rules for regulating cryptoasset markets.
Thus, financial institutions are required to identify and verify the details of their customers, including the ultimate beneficiary of the legal entity. This requirement applies to banking organizations, asset/crypto asset managers, real estate agents, etc.
Financial institutions should identify the possible risks associated with money laundering and the financing of criminal activities, and provide relevant information to regulators. It is expected that transaction limits will be set in cases where the client cannot be identified.
In plans, each member state of the European Union will have to create an internal financial intelligence unit, which will be responsible for monitoring, preventing and investigating cases related to money laundering.