Art. 58 Publication of pecuniary sanctions, administrative measures and periodic penalty payments | Sixth anti-money laundering (AML 6) directive | AML

This article sets out the public disclosure requirements that supervisors must follow when they impose sanctions or measures on obliged entities.

It directly builds on Articles 55, 56, and 57, which establish the types of pecuniary sanctions, administrative measures, and periodic penalty payments available to supervisors.

Article 58 governs how and when those decisions must be made publicly available, including the minimum content of publications, timing rules, and a structured set of exemptions that allow supervisors to delay, anonymise, or withhold publication in specific circumstances — such as where financial market stability or ongoing investigations could be compromised.

Important points:

Supervisors are required to publish enforcement decisions on their websites, including the type and nature of the breach, the identity of the persons responsible, and the amounts of any pecuniary sanctions or periodic penalty payments.
Supervisors may delay, anonymise, or entirely withhold publication following a case-by-case assessment where publication would be disproportionate, jeopardise financial market stability, or undermine an ongoing investigation.
All publications must remain on the supervisor's website for 5 years, though personal data within those publications must not be retained beyond what is permitted under applicable data protection rules, and in any case for no more than 5 years.

1. Member States shall ensure that supervisors publish on their website, in an accessible format, decisions imposing pecuniary sanctions, applying administrative measures referred to in Article 56(2), points (c) to (g), pursuant to Article 56(1), point (a), or imposing periodic penalty payments.
1. Member States shall ensure that the decisions referred to in paragraph 1 are published by the supervisor immediately after the persons responsible for the breach are informed of those decisions.
2. By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, where the publication concerns administrative measures against which there is an appeal and that do not aim to remedy serious, repeated and systematic breaches, Member States may allow for the publication of those administrative measures to be deferred until expiry of the deadline for lodging an appeal.
3. Where the publication refers to decisions against which there is an appeal, supervisors shall also publish, immediately, on their website such information and any subsequent information on an appeal, and the outcome of such appeal. Any decision annulling a previous decision to impose a pecuniary sanction, apply an administrative measure, or impose a periodic penalty payment, shall also be published.
1. The publication shall include at least information on the type and nature of the breach and the identity of the persons responsible, as well as, for pecuniary sanctions and periodic penalty payments, their amounts. Member States shall not be obliged to apply this subparagraph to decisions applying administrative measures that are of an investigatory nature, or which are taken pursuant to Article 56(2), points (a) and (c).
2. Where the publication of the identity of the persons responsible as referred to in the first subparagraph or the personal data of such persons is considered by the supervisors to be disproportionate following a case-by-case assessment, or where publication jeopardises the stability of financial markets or an on-going investigation, supervisors shall:
  1. delay the publication of the decision until the moment at which the reasons for not publishing it cease to exist;
  2. publish the decision on an anonymous basis in a manner in accordance with national law, if such anonymous publication ensures the effective protection of the personal data concerned; in that case, the publication of the relevant data may be postponed for a reasonable period if it is foreseen that within that period the reasons for anonymous publication shall cease to exist;
  3. not publish the decision at all in the event that the options set out in points (a) and (b) are considered insufficient to ensure one of the following:
    that the stability of financial markets would not be put in jeopardy;
    the proportionality of the publication of the decision with regard to pecuniary sanctions and administrative measures for breaches which are deemed to be of a minor nature.
1. Member States shall ensure that any publication in accordance with this Article remains on the website of the supervisors for a period of 5 years after its publication. However, personal data contained in the publication shall only be kept on the website of the supervisors for the period which is necessary in accordance with the applicable data protection rules and in any case for no more than 5 years.