BETA


2021/0250(COD) Prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing: mechanisms to be put in place by the Member States

Progress: Procedure completed

RoleCommitteeRapporteurShadows
Joint Responsible Committee ['ECON', 'LIBE'] NIEDERMAYER Luděk (icon: EPP EPP), TANG Paul (icon: S&D S&D) RESSLER Karlo (icon: EPP EPP), REGNER Evelyn (icon: S&D S&D), POPTCHEVA Eva Maria (icon: Renew Renew), STRUGARIU Ramona (icon: Renew Renew), CARÊME Damien (icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE), PETER-HANSEN Kira Marie (icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE), JAKI Patryk (icon: ECR ECR), ZĪLE Roberts (icon: ECR ECR), GARRAUD Jean-Paul (icon: ID ID), ZANNI Marco (icon: ID ID), DALY Clare (icon: GUE/NGL GUE/NGL), SCHIRDEWAN Martin (icon: GUE/NGL GUE/NGL)
Committee Opinion JURI
Lead committee dossier:
Legal Basis:
RoP 58, TFEU 114-p1

Events

2024/06/19
   Final act published in Official Journal
2024/05/31
   CSL - Draft final act
Documents
2024/05/31
   CSL - Final act signed
2024/05/30
   EP/CSL - Act adopted by Council after Parliament's 1st reading
2024/04/24
   EP - Debate in Parliament
2024/04/24
   EP - Decision by Parliament, 1st reading
Details

The European Parliament adopted by 513 votes to 25 with 33 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the mechanisms to be put in place by the Member States for the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing and repealing Directive (EU) 2015/849.

The European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure amends the proposal as follows:

Requirements relating to the granting of residence rights in exchange for investment

Member States whose national law enables the granting of residence rights in exchange for any kind of investment, such as capital transfers, purchase or renting of property, investment in government bonds, investment in corporate entities, donation or endowment of an activity contributing to the public good and contributions to the state budget, should put in place measures to mitigate the associated risks of money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing.

Risk assessment

The Commission should conduct an assessment of the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing and of non-implementation and evasion of targeted financial sanctions affecting the internal market and relating to cross-border activities. By four years from the date of entry into force of this Directive, it should draw up a report identifying, analysing and evaluating those risks at Union level. Where new risks are identified, the Commission may recommend that Member States consider updating their national risk assessments. Member States should also carry out risk assessments at national level.

Central registers of beneficial owners

The new laws ensure that people with a legitimate interest, including journalists, media professionals, civil society organisations, competent authorities, and supervisory bodies, should have immediate, unfiltered, direct and free access to beneficial ownership information held in national registries and interconnected at EU level. In addition to current information, the registries should also include data going back at least five years.

Member States should ensure that the information contained in the central registers indicates that the legal entity is associated with persons or entities subject to targeted financial sanctions.

Member States should provide Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) with immediate and direct access to information to enable the proper analysis and investigation of potential criminal cases involving real estate . This information provided free of charge through a single point of access, by digital means, must include information on the history of real estate ownership, the prices at which real estate has been acquired in the past and the associated charges on that property, in order to enable the detection of any suspicious activity linked to property transactions, including real estate, which could indicate cases of money laundering.

Establishment of the Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs)

Each Member State should establish an FIU in order to prevent, detect and effectively combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The FIU should designate a Fundamental Rights Officer.

Member States should ensure that FIUs, regardless of their organisational status, have access to the information that they require to fulfil their tasks, including financial, administrative and law enforcement information. This includes tax information, information on transfers of funds and transfers of crypto-assets, information on procedures for awarding public contracts for goods or services, national registers of motor vehicles, aircraft and watercraft, customs data, national arms registers and information on funds and other assets frozen or immobilised in application of targeted financial sanctions, among others.

FIUs should be able to respond in a timely manner to reasoned requests for information justified by concerns relating to money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing by the competent authorities. They should provide supervisors, spontaneously or upon request, information that may be relevant for the purposes of supervision.

Financial Intelligence Units should have more powers to analyse and detect money laundering and terrorist financing cases as well as to suspend suspicious transactions.

FIUs should also provide customs authorities with feedback, at least once per year, on the effectiveness and follow-up to reports on cross-border physical movements of cash. They are encouraged to conclude bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding with counterparts from third countries.

Anti-money laundering supervision

Each Member State should ensure that all obligated entities established within its territory are subject to adequate and effective supervision by one or more supervisors .

National supervisors should, inter alia , disseminate relevant information to obliged entities, to regularly verify and monitor money laundering and terrorist financing risks as well as risks of non-implementation and targeted circumvention of financial sanctions, and to carry out remote or on-site inspections.

Supervisors should communicate to the FIU the list of establishments operating in the respective Member State and the list of infrastructure under their supervision and of any changes to those lists as well as any relevant findings indicating serious weaknesses of the reporting systems of obliged entities.

Where obliged entities that are not part of a group carry out cross-border activities and supervision is shared between the supervisors of the home and host Member States, Member States should ensure that those supervisors cooperate with each other to the greatest extent possible and assist each other in the performance of supervision.

Member States should ensure that dedicated AML/CFT supervisory colleges are set up by the financial supervisor in charge of the parent undertaking of a group of credit institutions or financial institutions or of the head office of a credit institution or financial institution in certain situations. New supervisory measures for the non-financial sector have also been introduced, with the establishment of supervisory colleges.

Documents
2024/03/19
   EP - Approval in committee of the text agreed at 1st reading interinstitutional negotiations
Documents
2024/03/19
   EP - Approval in committee of the text agreed at 1st reading interinstitutional negotiations
Documents
2024/02/14
   CSL - Coreper letter confirming interinstitutional agreement
2024/02/13
   EP - Text agreed during interinstitutional negotiations
Documents
2023/04/19
   EP - Committee decision to enter into interinstitutional negotiations confirmed by plenary (Rule 71)
2023/04/17
   EP - Committee decision to enter into interinstitutional negotiations announced in plenary (Rule 71)
2023/04/14
   EP - Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading
Details

The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs jointly adopted the report by Luděk NIEDERMAYER (EPP, CZ) and Paul TANG (S&D, NL) on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the mechanisms to be put in place by the Member States for the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing and repealing Directive (EU) 2015/849.

The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the proposal as follows:

Subject matter

Given that land and real estate is an attractive commodity for criminals to launder the proceeds of their illicit activities, the amended text suggested that the Directive should also lay down rules concerning access to information on beneficial ownership, bank accounts, land or real estate registers and relevant goods.

Regarding real estate, Member States should set-up registers or electronic data retrieval systems to effectively put an end to real estate or land as a means to launder money. It is important that Member States provide FIUs and competent authorities with access to information through a single access point in each Member State, which allows the identification in a timely manner of natural or legal person owning land and real estate. Moreover, Member States should ensure that estate agents develop or have in place training programmes for professionals. The nature and extent of training should be tailored to the scale and complexity of the business and be appropriate to the level of the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing faced by the obliged entity.

National risk assessment

Each Member State should designate an authority or establish a mechanism to coordinate the national response to the risks set out in the risk assessment. The identity of this authority or the description of the mechanism should be notified to the Commission, the anti-money laundering authority (AMLA), Europol and the other Member States.

Central register of beneficial ownership information

Central registers of beneficial ownership information are crucial in combating the misuse of legal entities. Therefore, Member States should ensure that beneficial ownership information of legal entities incorporated outside the Union or of express trusts or similar legal arrangements administered outside the Union are held in the central register.

Searches in Beneficial Ownership Register

Beneficial ownership registers are well placed to identify, in a rapid and efficient manner, the individuals who ultimately own or control legal entities and arrangements, including individuals designated in relation to targeted financial sanctions.

The report includes a new article stating that the European Central Platform should serve as a central search service, making available all information related to beneficial ownership. Competent authorities, AMLA, self-regulatory bodies and obliged entities should be able to make searches of beneficial ownership information through the European Central Platform.

Bank account registers and electronic data retrieval systems

Member States should take adequate measures to ensure that information on holders of closed customer-accounts, bank or payment accounts, custodial crypto-asset wallets and safe-deposit boxes is made available through their national centralised automated mechanisms and through the single access point interconnecting the centralised automated mechanisms for a period of five years after the closure of the account or wallet.

National FIUs and AMLA should be granted immediate and unfiltered access to the information on payment and bank accounts and safe-deposit boxes in other Member States available through the single access point interconnecting the centralised automated mechanisms.

Strengthening the role of the ALMA

Members wish to strengthen the role of the ALMA in the context of the rules and procedures set out in this Directive. In particular, they say that the ALMA should:

- issue guidelines on the elements to be taken into account by supervisors when assessing whether: (i) the senior managers and the beneficial owners of obliged entities act with honesty and integrity; (ii) the senior management of obliged entities are of good repute and possess proven knowledge and expertise necessary to carry out their functions; (iii) there are reasonable grounds to suspect that money laundering or terrorist financing is being or has been committed or attempted, or that the risk thereof could increase in connection with that obliged entity;

- maintain a register of responsible national authorities or mechanisms established to coordinate the national response to risks, identified at national level;

- play a role in conducting peer reviews of some or all of the activities of the entities in charge of the central beneficial ownership registers with the purpose of assessing whether those entities have mechanisms to fulfil the requirements of this Directive and effectively check whether the beneficial ownership information held in those register is accurate, adequate and up to date.

Information on motor vehicles, aircrafts and watercrafts

Member States should provide competent authorities with timely access to information which allows the identification of any natural person or the beneficial owner of any legal person owning motor vehicles, aircrafts or watercrafts whose estimated value is above EUR 200 000 or the equivalent in national currency. Information set out in the purchase contract or other proof of transaction, including at least the identification of all parties involved in the transaction, the means of payment and the source of funds, is included and available as part of the information should be provided to competent authorities and AMLA without delay.

Documents
2023/03/28
   EP - Vote in committee, 1st reading
2023/03/28
   EP - Committee decision to open interinstitutional negotiations with report adopted in committee
2022/06/24
   EP - Amendments tabled in committee
Documents
2022/06/24
   EP - Amendments tabled in committee
Documents
2022/06/24
   EP - Amendments tabled in committee
Documents
2022/05/18
   EP - Committee draft report
Documents
2022/02/16
   ECB - European Central Bank: opinion, guideline, report
2022/01/03
   CZ_SENATE - Contribution
Documents
2021/12/16
   EP - Referral to joint committee announced in Parliament
2021/12/08
   ESC - Economic and Social Committee: opinion, report
Documents
2021/11/25
   EP - NIEDERMAYER Luděk (EPP) appointed as rapporteur in ['ECON', 'LIBE']
2021/11/25
   EP - TANG Paul (S&D) appointed as rapporteur in ['ECON', 'LIBE']
2021/11/22
   ES_PARLIAMENT - Contribution
Documents
2021/11/08
   PT_PARLIAMENT - Contribution
Documents
2021/10/04
   EP - Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading
2021/09/22
   EDPS - Document attached to the procedure
Documents
2021/07/20
   EC - Legislative proposal published
Details

PURPOSE: to establish a coordinated and coherent mechanism on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing and repealing Directive (EU) 2015/849.

PROPOSED ACT: Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: money laundering and terrorist financing pose a serious threat to the integrity of the EU economy and financial system and the security of its citizens. Europol estimated that around 1% of the EU’s annual Gross Domestic Product is ‘detected as being involved in suspect financial activity’. The fight against money laundering and terrorist financing is vital for financial stability and security in Europe.

Legislative gaps in one Member State have an impact on the EU as a whole.

The proposed directive repeals Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing.

The EU’s Security Union Strategy for 2020-2025 highlighted the importance of enhancing the EU’s framework for anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing in order to protect Europeans from terrorism and organised crime.

Furthermore, on 20 July 2021, the European Commission presented an ambitious package of legislative proposals to strengthen the EU’s anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) rules. It is part of the Commission’s commitment to protect EU citizens and the EU's financial system from money laundering and terrorist financing. The aim is to improve the detection of suspicious transactions and activities, and close loopholes used by criminals to launder illicit proceeds or finance terrorist activities through the financial system.

CONTENT: the proposed directive will replace the existing Directive 2015/849/EU containing provisions that will be transposed into national law, such as rules on national supervisors and financial intelligence units in Member States.

The present proposal does not simply transfers provisions from the current Directive to a future one; a number of changes of substance are made in order to bring about a greater level of convergence in the practices of supervisors and FIUs and in relation to cooperation among competent authorities.

The proposed directive:

- enables Member States to extend the requirements of the accompanying draft Regulation to other sectors not covered in the scope of that Regulation. A consolidated list of the sectors to which Member States have extended the list of obliged entities will be published by the Commission in the Official Journal of the European Union on an annual basis;

- sets out specific regulatory requirements that Member States are to implement in national law for certain sectors. Specifically, currency exchange and cheque cashing offices, and trust or company service providers must be subject to either licensing or registration requirements; gambling service providers must be regulated;

- allows supervisors of the Member States where electronic money issuers, payment service providers and crypto-assets service providers are active via freedom to provide services to appoint contact points in those Member States;

- confirms the probity requirements for senior managers in certain obliged entities as in the current framework, complementing fit and proper requirements in other EU acts, and clarifies that certain requirements also apply to beneficial owners of those obliged entities. For other obliged entities, it confirms the prohibition for persons convicted of money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing to operate them. This draft Directive grants certain powers to national supervisors over the senior management of certain obliged entities, especially in the case of conviction for money laundering or terrorist financing;

- obliges Member States to create and maintain mechanisms, such as a central register or a central electronic data retrieval system, to allow identification of holders of bank accounts and safe deposit boxes, contained in the current AML Directive;

- lays down the creation of a cross-border interconnection between such mechanisms;

- includes new provisions on the responsibilities and tasks of the Financial Intelligence Units ( FIUs ) such as clarifications on the financial analysis function of FIUs and on their operational independence, their resources and their security; provisions on information exchange between FIUs and other competent authorities.

Documents

Votes

A9-0150/2023 – Luděk Niedermayer, Paul Tang – Provisional agreement – Am 387 #

2024/04/24 Outcome: +: 513, 0: 33, -: 25
FR DE ES PL IT RO NL SE BE CZ PT HU BG FI AT EL DK HR LT IE LV SK SI LU EE MT
Total
68
79
53
42
46
21
28
19
21
21
17
14
13
13
17
12
11
11
9
12
8
12
7
6
7
4
icon: PPE PPE
143

Hungary PPE

1

Denmark PPE

For (1)

1

Slovenia PPE

3

Luxembourg PPE

2

Estonia PPE

For (1)

1

Malta PPE

For (1)

1
icon: S&D S&D
109

Romania S&D

2

Belgium S&D

2

Czechia S&D

For (1)

1

Bulgaria S&D

2

Greece S&D

1

Denmark S&D

2

Lithuania S&D

2

Latvia S&D

2

Slovakia S&D

For (1)

1

Slovenia S&D

2

Luxembourg S&D

For (1)

1

Estonia S&D

2
icon: Renew Renew
90

Poland Renew

1

Sweden Renew

2

Hungary Renew

For (1)

1

Bulgaria Renew

2

Finland Renew

3

Austria Renew

For (1)

1

Greece Renew

1

Croatia Renew

For (1)

1

Ireland Renew

2

Latvia Renew

For (1)

1

Slovenia Renew

2

Luxembourg Renew

2

Estonia Renew

3
icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE
65

Spain Verts/ALE

3

Poland Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Italy Verts/ALE

2

Netherlands Verts/ALE

3

Sweden Verts/ALE

3

Belgium Verts/ALE

3

Czechia Verts/ALE

3

Portugal Verts/ALE

1

Finland Verts/ALE

3

Austria Verts/ALE

3

Denmark Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Lithuania Verts/ALE

2

Ireland Verts/ALE

2

Luxembourg Verts/ALE

For (1)

1
icon: ECR ECR
58

France ECR

Against (1)

1

Germany ECR

1

Romania ECR

1

Bulgaria ECR

2

Finland ECR

1

Greece ECR

1

Croatia ECR

1

Lithuania ECR

1

Latvia ECR

For (1)

1

Slovakia ECR

Abstain (1)

1
icon: The Left The Left
31

Belgium The Left

For (1)

1

Czechia The Left

Abstain (1)

1

Portugal The Left

4

Finland The Left

For (1)

1

Greece The Left

2

Denmark The Left

1

Ireland The Left

For (1)

4
icon: NI NI
31

France NI

Against (1)

3

Germany NI

For (1)

1

Spain NI

1

Romania NI

For (1)

1

Netherlands NI

Against (1)

1

Belgium NI

For (1)

1

Czechia NI

For (1)

1

Greece NI

For (1)

Against (1)

2

Croatia NI

Against (1)

2

Latvia NI

Abstain (1)

1
icon: ID ID
44

Czechia ID

Against (1)

1

Austria ID

Against (2)

2

Denmark ID

Abstain (1)

1

Estonia ID

Abstain (1)

1
AmendmentsDossier
775 2021/0250(COD)
2022/06/27 ECON, LIBE 775 amendments...