Source: OJ L, 2024/1640, 19.6.2024Current language: EN
- Anti-money laundering
Basic legislative acts
- Sixth anti-money laundering (AML 6) directive
Article 6 Checks on the senior management and beneficial owners of certain obliged entities
Summary What does Article 6 of the Sixth anti-money laundering (AML 6) directive say?
This article establishes the fitness and propriety requirements for senior management and beneficial owners of obliged entities, building directly on Article 4 which sets out the registration and licensing requirements for those entities.
It places obligations on Member States to ensure supervisors actively screen, monitor, and where necessary act against individuals in leadership or ownership positions who do not meet standards of good repute, honesty, integrity, knowledge, and expertise.
Crucially, the article goes beyond initial verification — supervisors must conduct ongoing, risk-sensitive checks and are equipped with meaningful enforcement powers, including the ability to remove individuals from senior management roles or force the divestment of beneficial ownership stakes.
Important points:
- Supervisors are required to verify on an ongoing, risk-sensitive basis that senior management and beneficial owners of obliged entities meet standards of good repute, honesty, integrity, knowledge, and expertise.
- Supervisors are required to have enforcement powers to remove senior managers, impose temporary bans, and compel the divestment of holdings by beneficial owners convicted of money laundering, predicate offences, or terrorist financing.
- AMLA is required to issue guidelines by 10 July 2029 on the criteria for assessing good repute, honesty, integrity, knowledge, and expertise, and on the consistent application of supervisory powers under this article.
Springlex's summary of the article, a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.
Member States shall require supervisors to verify that the members of the senior management in the obliged entities referred to in Article 4(1) and (2) as well as financial mixed activity holding companies, and the beneficial owners of such entities are of good repute, and act with honesty and integrity. Senior management of such entities shall also possess the knowledge and expertise necessary to carry out their functions.
With respect to the obliged entities referred to in Article 3, points (3)(a), (b), (d), (e), (f) and (h) to (o), of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, Member States shall ensure that supervisors take the necessary measures to prevent persons convicted of money laundering, its relevant predicate offences or terrorist financing or their associates from being professionally accredited, from holding a senior management function in or from being the beneficial owners of those obliged entities.
Member States shall ensure that supervisors verify, on a risk-sensitive basis, whether the requirements of paragraphs 1 and 2 continue to be met. In particular, they shall verify whether the senior management of obliged entities referred to in paragraph 1 is of good repute, acts with honesty and integrity and possesses knowledge and expertise necessary to carry out its functions in cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that money laundering or terrorist financing is being or has been committed or attempted, or there is increased risk thereof in an obliged entity.
Member States shall ensure that supervisors have the power to request the removal of any person convicted of money laundering, its relevant predicate offences or terrorist financing, from the senior management of obliged entities as referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2. Member States shall ensure that supervisors have the power to remove or impose a temporary ban on members of the senior management of the obliged entities referred to in paragraph 1 that are not deemed to be of good repute, act with honesty and integrity or possess the knowledge and expertise necessary to carry out their functions.
Member States shall ensure that supervisors have the power to disassociate persons convicted of money laundering, its relevant predicate offences or terrorist financing, who are beneficial owners of obliged entities as referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, from obliged entities, including by granting supervisors the power to request the divestment of the holding by those beneficial owners in obliged entities.
For the purposes of this Article, Member States shall ensure that, in accordance with national law, supervisors or any other authority competent at national level for assessing the requirements applicable to persons referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article, check the central AML/CFT database under Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 and whether a relevant conviction exists in the criminal record of the person concerned. Any exchange of information for those purposes shall be carried out in accordance with Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA and Decision 2009/316/JHA as implemented in national law.
Member States shall ensure that decisions taken by supervisors pursuant to this Article are subject to effective remedial procedures, including judicial remedy.
By 10 July 2029, AMLA shall issue guidelines on:
the criteria to assess good repute, honesty and integrity as referred to in paragraph 1;
the criteria to assess knowledge and expertise as referred to in paragraph 1;
the consistent application by supervisors of the power entrusted to them under this Article.
When drawing up the guidelines referred to in the first subparagraph, AMLA shall take into account the specificities of each sector in which the obliged entities operate.
Member States shall apply this Article in relation to the obliged entities referred to in Article 3, points 3(n) and (o) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 from 10 July 2029.
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
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supervisor
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senior management
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financial mixed activity holding company
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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
crypto-asset
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property
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express trust
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legal arrangement
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management body
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terrorist financing
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money laundering
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
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funds
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beneficial owner
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management body in its management function
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obliged entity