Art. 51 Cooperation with supervisors in third countries | Sixth anti-money laundering (AML 6) directive | AML

This article governs how supervisors within Member States can engage in formal cooperation with their counterparts in third countries.

It establishes the conditions under which such cooperation agreements can be made, centred on data protection compliance, reciprocity, and professional secrecy standards equivalent to those required domestically under Article 67(1).

AMLA plays a supporting role here, both in assessing whether third-country secrecy standards are equivalent and in developing a standardised template for these agreements.

Important points:

Member States must ensure supervisors can conclude cooperation agreements with third-country counterparts, subject to data protection rules, reciprocity, and equivalent professional secrecy guarantees.
Any information originating from another Member State may only be disclosed with the explicit consent of the supervisor that originally shared it.
Supervisors are required to notify AMLA of any signed agreement within 1 month of signature.

1. Member States shall ensure that supervisors are able to conclude cooperation agreements providing for cooperation and exchanges of confidential information with their counterparts in third countries. Such cooperation agreements shall comply with applicable data protection rules and be concluded on the basis of reciprocity and subject to a guarantee of professional secrecy requirements at least equivalent to that referred to in Article 67(1). Confidential information exchanged in accordance with those cooperation agreements shall be used for the purpose of performing the supervisory tasks of those authorities only.
2. Where the information exchanged originates in another Member State, it shall only be disclosed with the explicit consent of the supervisor which shared it and, where appropriate, solely for the purposes for which that supervisor gave its consent.
1. For the purposes of paragraph 1, AMLA shall provide such assistance as necessary to assess the equivalence of professional secrecy requirements applicable to the third-country counterpart.
1. Member States shall ensure that supervisors notify any agreement signed pursuant to this Article to AMLA within 1 month of its signature.
1. By 10 July 2029, AMLA shall develop draft implementing technical standards and submit them to the Commission for adoption. Those draft implementing technical standards shall specify the template to be used for the conclusion of cooperation agreements referred to in paragraph 1.
2. Power is conferred on the Commission to adopt the implementing technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph in accordance with Article 53 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1620.