AMLA mission and goals
The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Authority (AMLA) will be a decentralised EU agency that will coordinate national authorities to ensure the correct and consistent application of EU rules.
The aim of the EU Authority will be to transform the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) supervision in the EU and enhance cooperation among financial intelligence units (FIUs).
AMLA’s key responsibilities will include:
- Directly supervising selected financial sector entities that operate on cross border basis and present high risk of money laundering and terrorism financing, as well as indirectly supervising other entities in the financial and non-financial sectors.
- Supporting and coordinating Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) by facilitating joint cross-border cases analyses, enabling controlled information exchange, providing capabilities, advanced data analytics and managing the common FIU.net information system.
- Complementing EU AML/CFT rules by developing regulatory and implementing technical standards and issuing guidelines.
AMLA’s seat will be in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
AMLA setup steps
The ambitious legislative package aimed at strengthening the EU’s anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) rules was approved by the Council (30.05) and the Parliament (24.04) in 2024.
The AMLA Regulation, AML Regulation and AML D6 were published in the official journal on June 19th 2024.
The European Commission presented the package in in July 2021. It aimed to harmonise AML/CFT rules across the EU and proposed the creation of a new EU authority to fight money laundering.
The AMLA Task Force is leading the establishment of the new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) in the context of the ambitious AML package
that the European Commission proposed in 2021, and the European parliament and the Council of the EU approved in 2024.
The Task Force is in charge of initiating and coordinating the preparatory steps related to the setting up of the new Authority (AMLA). It will also ensure that the first decisions and actions can effectively and rapidly be taken with the legal establishment from 26.06.2024 on, such as:
- Negotiating a headquarters agreement;
- Selecting suitable facilities for AMLA, including a building, equipment and services;
- Recruiting administrative and operational staff;
- Supporting the setup of the agency’s governance, including the pre-selection of AMLA’s Chair, Executive Board members and Executive Director;
- Managing the Agency’s 2024 budget and preparing future budgetary plans;
- Designing and implementing essential IT architecture to support AMLA’s operations.
Milestones
- 1 January 2028Start of direct supervision and AMLA is fully operational
- End of 2027AMLA staff is around 430
- During 202740 obliged entities are selected to be directly supervised
- During 2026AMLA starts consulting on implementing rules; Start of IT Services and assessing AMLA future IT needs
- End of 2025AMLA staff is around 120
- Summer 2025AMLA starts operations
- First quarter of 2025AMLA opens its new office in Frankfurt and has an Executive Board
- End of 2024/beginning of 2025AMLA has a Chair
- 26 June 2024AMLA is legally established
- 19 June 2024AMLA Regulation is published in the Official Journal
- 24 April 2024European Parliament plenary votes on the reports on Anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism legislative package
- 10 January 2024Seat selection procedure
- 18 December 2023Seat selection procedure
- 28 September 2023Call for application
At the request of the co-legislators, which have agreed on the selection criteria, the Commission launched a call for applications to Member States for the selection of the seat of AMLA.
- 20 July 2021Legislative proposal
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. The package harmonises AML/CFT rules across the EU. It also proposes the creation of a new EU authority to fight money laundering.