Source: OJ L, 2024/1640, 19.6.2024Current language: EN
- Anti-money laundering
Basic legislative acts
- Sixth anti-money laundering (AML 6) directive
Article 47 Supervisory cooperation regarding obliged entities carrying out cross-border activities
Summary What does Article 47 of the Sixth anti-money laundering (AML 6) directive say?
This article deals with supervisory cooperation for standalone obliged entities — that is, those not part of a group — that carry out cross-border activities.
It sits alongside Article 46, which covers similar cooperation requirements for groups of credit and financial institutions, and extends the spirit of that framework to non-group entities.
The article sets out how home and host Member State supervisors must cooperate with each other, share information, conduct inquiries, and keep each other informed of adverse developments or enforcement actions.
It also provides an escalation mechanism, allowing supervisors to refer disputes or failures to cooperate to AMLA for resolution.
Important points:
- Home and host Member State supervisors are required to cooperate, share information on request or on their own initiative, and conduct inquiries on each other's behalf where supervision is shared over a cross-border obliged entity.
- Home Member State supervisors are required to regularly update host supervisors on compliance measures and, in cases of serious, repeated or systematic breaches, inform them of any sanctions or measures intended to remedy those breaches.
- Supervisors can refer to AMLA cases where information has not been shared, cooperation has been refused or ignored, or where there is a disagreement on breaches and remedies — with AMLA required to provide its opinion within 1 month.
Springlex's summary of the article, a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.
Where obliged entities that are not part of a group carry out cross-border activities as referred to in Article 54(1) and supervision is shared between the supervisors of the home and host Member States pursuant to Articles 37(1) and 38(1), Member States shall ensure that those supervisors cooperate with each other to the greatest extent possible and assist each other in the performance of supervision pursuant to Articles 37(1) and 38(1).
For the purposes of the first subparagraph, and except in cases where AML/CFT supervisory colleges are set up in accordance with Article 49, Member States shall ensure that supervisors:
provide one another with any information they require for the exercise of their supervisory tasks, whether on request or on their own initiative, including the information referred to in Article 46(3), first subparagraph, points (a), (b) and (d), where that information is necessary for the performance of supervisory tasks;
inform one another of any adverse development in relation to the obliged entity, its establishments or types of infrastructure, which could seriously affect the entity’s compliance with applicable requirements, and pecuniary sanctions they intend to impose, or administrative measures they intend to apply in accordance with Section 4 of this Chapter;
are able to conduct, within their powers, inquiries on behalf of a requesting supervisor, and to share the information obtained through such inquiries, or to facilitate the conduct of such inquiries by the requesting supervisor.
This paragraph shall also apply in the case of obliged entities that are established in a single Member State and operate under the freedom to provide services in another Member State without any infrastructure, where the supervision of activities in that other Member State is carried out by the supervisors of that Member State pursuant to Article 37(1), second subparagraph.
Where supervision of the obliged entity and any of its types of infrastructure in other Member States is entrusted to the supervisors of the home Member State pursuant to Article 38(2), Member States shall ensure that the supervisors of the home Member State inform regularly the supervisors of the host Member State of the measures in place within the obliged entity, and compliance of that entity with applicable requirements, including those in place in the host Member State. Where serious, repeated or systematic breaches are identified, the supervisors of the home Member State shall promptly inform the supervisors of the host Member State of those breaches and of any pecuniary sanctions they intend to impose and administrative measures they intend to apply to remedy them.
Member States shall ensure that supervisors of the host Member State provide assistance to the supervisors of the home Member State to ensure the verification of compliance by the obliged entity with legal requirements. In particular, Member States shall ensure that supervisors of the host Member State inform the supervisors of the home Member State of any serious doubts that they have regarding compliance of the obliged entity with applicable requirements, and that they share any information they hold in this regard with the supervisors of the home Member State.
This paragraph shall also apply in the case of obliged entities that are established in a single Member State and operate under the freedom to provide services in another Member State without any infrastructure, except for cases where the supervision of activities in that other Member State is carried out by the supervisors of that other Member State pursuant to Article 37(1), second subparagraph.
Supervisors shall be able to refer to AMLA any of the following situations:
where a supervisor has not communicated the information referred to in paragraph 1, second subparagraph, points (a) and (b) or paragraph 2, first and second subparagraph;
where a request for cooperation has been rejected or has not been acted upon within a reasonable time;
where there is a disagreement on the basis of objective reasons on breaches identified and on the pecuniary sanctions to be imposed on or administrative measures to be applied to the entity to remedy those breaches.
AMLA shall act in accordance with the powers conferred on it under Articles 33 and 38 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1620. AMLA shall provide its opinion on the subject-matter of the request within 1 month.
Springlex and this text is meant purely as a documentation tool and has no legal effect. No liability is assumed for its content. The authentic version of this act is the one published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Definition
crypto-asset services
Definition
supervisor
Definition
host Member State
Definition
financial mixed activity holding company
Definition
crypto-asset service provider
Definition
credit institution
- a credit institution as defined in Article 4(1), point (1), of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;
- a branch of a credit institution, as defined in Article 4(1), point (17), of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, when located in the Union, whether its head office is located in a Member State or in a third country;
Definition
AML/CFT supervisory college
Definition
parent undertaking
- for groups whose head office is located in the Union, an obliged entity that is a parent undertaking as defined in Article 2, point (9), of Directive 2013/34/EU that is not itself a subsidiary of another undertaking in the Union, provided that at least one subsidiary undertaking is an obliged entity;
- for groups whose head office is located outside of the Union, where at least two subsidiary undertakings are obliged entities established in the Union, an undertaking within that group established in the Union that:
- is an obliged entity;
- is an undertaking that is not a subsidiary of another undertaking that is an obliged entity established in the Union;
- has a sufficient prominence within the group and a sufficient understanding of the operations of the group that are subject to the requirements of this Regulation; and
- is given the responsibility of implementing group-wide requirements under Chapter II, Section 2 of this Regulation;
Definition
home Member State
Definition
crypto-asset
Definition
establishment
- a branch or subsidiary;
- in the case of credit institutions and financial institutions, an infrastructure qualifying as an establishment under prudential regulation;
Definition
property
Definition
group
Definition
financial institution
- an undertaking other than a credit institution or an investment firm, which carries out one or more of the activities listed in points (2) to (12), (14) and (15) of Annex I to Directive 2013/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council(32), including the activities of currency exchange offices (bureaux de change), but excluding the activities referred to in point (8) of Annex I to Directive (EU) 2015/2366, or an undertaking the principal activity of which is to acquire holdings, including a financial holding company, a mixed financial holding company and a financial mixed activity holding company;
- an insurance undertaking as defined in Article 13, point (1), of Directive 2009/138/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council(33), insofar as it carries out life or other investment-related assurance activities covered by that Directive, including insurance holding companies and mixed-activity insurance holding companies as defined, respectively, in Article 212(1), points (f) and (g), of Directive 2009/138/EC;
- an insurance intermediary as defined in Article 2(1), point (3), of Directive (EU) 2016/97 where it acts with respect to life insurance and other investment-related insurance services, with the exception of an insurance intermediary that does not collect premiums or amounts intended for the customer and which acts under the responsibility of one or more insurance undertakings or intermediaries for the products which concern them respectively;
- an investment firm as defined in Article 4(1), point (1), of Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council(34);
- a collective investment undertaking, in particular:
- an undertaking for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) as defined in Article 1(2) of Directive 2009/65/EC and its management company as defined in Article 2(1), point (b), of that Directive or an investment company authorised in accordance with that Directive and which has not designated a management company, that makes available for purchase units of UCITS in the Union;
- an alternative investment fund as defined in Article 4(1), point (a), of Directive 2011/61/EU and its alternative investment fund manager as defined in Article 4(1), point (b), of that Directive that fall within the scope set out in Article 2 of that Directive;
- a central securities depository as defined in Article 2(1), point (1), of Regulation (EU) No 909/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council(35);
- a creditor as defined in Article 4, point (2), of Directive 2014/17/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council(36) and in Article 3, point (b), of Directive 2008/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council(37);
- a credit intermediary as defined in Article 4, point (5), of Directive 2014/17/EU and in Article 3, point (f), of Directive 2008/48/EC, when holding the funds as defined in Article 4, point (25), of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 in connection with the credit agreement, with the exception of the credit intermediary carrying out activities under the responsibility of one or more creditors or credit intermediaries;
- a crypto-asset service provider;
- a branch of a financial institution referred to in points (a) to (i), when located in the Union, whether its head office is located in a Member State or in a third country;
Definition
third country
Definition
funds
Definition
obliged entity