Article 21 Access to information

1. immediate and direct access to the following financial information:

   1. information contained in the national centralised automated mechanisms in accordance with Article 16;

   2. information from obliged entitiesmeans a natural or legal person listed in Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 that is not exempted in accordance with Article 4, 5, 6 or 7 of that Regulation;, including information on transfers of fundsor ‘property’ means property as defined in Article 2, point (2), of Directive (EU) 2018/1673; as defined in Article 3, point (9), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 and transfers of crypto-assetsmeans a crypto-asset as defined in Article 3(1), point (5), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 except when falling under the categories listed in Article 2(4) of that Regulation; as defined in Article 3, point (10), of that Regulation;

   3. information on mortgages and loans;

   4. information contained in the national currency and currency exchange databases;

   5. information on securitiesmeans financial instruments as defined in Article 4(1), point (15), of Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council(37) Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments and amending Directive 2002/92/EC and Directive 2011/61/EU (OJ L 173, 12.6.2014, p. 349)..Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments and amending Directive 2002/92/EC and Directive 2011/61/EU (OJ L 173, 12.6.2014, p. 349).;

2. immediate and direct access to the following administrative information:

   1. fiscal data, including data held by tax and revenue authorities as well as data obtained pursuant to Article 8(3a) of Council Directive 2011/16/EU(⁴⁰)Council Directive 2011/16/EU of 15 February 2011 on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation and repealing Directive 77/799/EEC (OJ L 64, 11.3.2011, p. 1).;

   2. information on public procurement procedures for goods or services, or concessions;

   3. information from BARIS as referred to in Article 16, as well as from national real estate registers or electronic data retrieval systems and land and cadastral registers;

   4. information contained in national citizenship and population registers of natural persons;

   5. information contained in national passports and visas registers;

   6. information contained in cross-border travel databases;

   7. information contained in commercial databases, including business and company registers and databases of politically exposed personsmeans a natural person who is or has been entrusted with prominent public functions including:in a Member State:heads of State, heads of government, ministers and deputy or assistant ministers;members of parliament or of similar legislative bodies;members of the governing bodies of political parties that hold seats in national executive or legislative bodies, or in regional or local executive or legislative bodies representing constituencies of at least 50 000 inhabitants;members of supreme courts, of constitutional courts or of other high-level judicial bodies, the decisions of which are not subject to further appeal, except in exceptional circumstances;members of courts of auditors or of the boards of central banks;ambassadors, chargés d’affaires and high-ranking officers in the armed forces;members of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of enterprises controlled under any of the relationships listed in Article 22 of Directive 2013/34/EU either by the state, or, where those enterprises qualify as medium sized or large undertakings or medium sized or large groups, as defined in Article 3(3), (4), (6) and (7) of that Directive, by regional or local authorities;heads of regional and local authorities, including groupings of municipalities and metropolitan regions, with at least 50 000 inhabitants;other prominent public functions provided for by Member States;in an international organisation:the highest ranking officials, their deputies and members of the board or equivalent functions of an international organisation;representatives to a Member State or to the Union;at Union level:functions at the level of Union institutions and bodies that are equivalent to those listed in points (a) (i), (ii), (iv), (v) and (vi);in a third country:functions that are equivalent to those listed in point (a);;

   8. information contained in national motor vehicles, aircraft and watercraft registers;

   9. information contained in national social security registers;

   10. customs data, including cross-border physical transfers of cashmeans cash as defined in Article 2(1), point (a), of Regulation (EU) 2018/1672 of the European Parliament and of the Council(39) Regulation (EU) 2018/1672 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on controls on cash entering or leaving the Union and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1889/2005 (OJ L 284, 12.11.2018, p. 6).;Regulation (EU) 2018/1672 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on controls on cash entering or leaving the Union and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1889/2005 (OJ L 284, 12.11.2018, p. 6).;

   11. information contained in national weapons and arms registers;

   12. information contained in national beneficial ownership registers;

   13. data available through the interconnection of central registers in accordance with Article 10(19);

   14. information contained in registers of non-profit organisations;

   15. information held by national financial supervisorsmeans a supervisor in charge of credit institutions and financial institutions; and regulators, in accordance with Article 61 and Article 67(2);

   16. databases storing data on CO2 emission trading established pursuant to Commission Regulation (EU) No 389/2013(⁴¹)Commission Regulation (EU) No 389/2013 of 2 May 2013 establishing a Union Registry pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Decisions No 280/2004/EC and No 406/2009/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Commission Regulations (EU) No 920/2010 and (EU) No 1193/2011 (OJ L 122, 3.5.2013, p. 1).;

   17. information on annual financial statements by companies;

   18. national migration and immigration registers;

   19. information held by commercial courts;

   20. information held in insolvency databases and by insolvency practitioners;

   21. information on fundsor ‘property’ means property as defined in Article 2, point (2), of Directive (EU) 2018/1673; and other assets frozen or immobilised pursuant to targeted financial sanctionsmeans both asset freezing and prohibitions to make funds or other assets available, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of designated persons and entities pursuant to Council Decisions adopted on the basis of Article 29 TEU and Council Regulations adopted on the basis of Article 215 TFEU;;

3. direct or indirect access to the following law enforcement information:

   1. any type of information or data which is already held by competent authoritiesmeans:a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU);a supervisory authority;a public authority that has the function of investigating or prosecuting money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing, or that has the function of tracing, seizing or freezing and confiscating criminal assets;a public authority with designated responsibilities for combating money laundering or terrorist financing; in the context of preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting criminal offences;

   2. any type of information or data which is held by public authorities or by private entities in the context of preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting criminal offences and which is available to competent authoritiesmeans:a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU);a supervisory authority;a public authority that has the function of investigating or prosecuting money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing, or that has the function of tracing, seizing or freezing and confiscating criminal assets;a public authority with designated responsibilities for combating money laundering or terrorist financing; without the taking of coercive measures under national law.

The information referred to in point (c) of the first subparagraph shall include criminal records, information on investigations, information on the freezing or seizure of assets, or on other investigative or provisional measures and information on convictions and on confiscations.

Member States may allow the restriction of access to the law enforcement information referred to in point (c) of the first subparagraph on a case-by-case basis, where the provision of such information is likely to jeopardise an ongoing investigation.

1. the entities or authorities holding the information provide it expeditiously to FIUs; and

2. no entity, authority or third party is able to interfere with the requested data or the information to be provided.

Member States shall ensure that, whenever possible, the FIU is granted direct access to the information listed in paragraph 1, first subparagraph, point (c). In cases where FIU is provided with indirect access to information, the entity or authority holding the requested information shall provide it in a timely manner.

In the context of its functions, each FIU shall be able to request, obtain and use information from any obliged entitymeans a natural or legal person listed in Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 that is not exempted in accordance with Article 4, 5, 6 or 7 of that Regulation; to perform its functions pursuant to Article 19(3) of this Directive, even if no prior report is filed pursuant to Article 69(1), the first subparagraph, point (a), or Article 70(1), of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624. Obliged entitiesmeans a natural or legal person listed in Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 that is not exempted in accordance with Article 4, 5, 6 or 7 of that Regulation; shall not be obliged to comply with requests for information made pursuant to this paragraph when they concern information obtained in the situations referred to in Article 70(2) of that Regulation.