Source: OJ L, 2024/1640, 19.6.2024Current language: EN
- Anti-money laundering
Basic legislative acts
- Sixth anti-money laundering (AML 6) directive
Article 67 Professional secrecy requirements
Summary What does Article 67 of the Sixth anti-money laundering (AML 6) directive say?
This article establishes the professional secrecy regime that governs supervisory authorities and related public bodies under the Directive.
It sets the baseline rule that all current and former staff of supervisors, as well as auditors and experts acting on their behalf, are bound by professional secrecy, meaning confidential information can only be disclosed in summary or aggregate form that prevents identification of individual obliged entities.
Crucially, the article then carves out a broad set of permitted information-sharing channels, allowing confidential information to flow freely between supervisors, FIUs, competent authorities, and prudential supervisors of credit and financial institutions, both within and across Member States.
This article works in close conjunction with Article 68, which further authorises specific disclosure scenarios building on the framework established here.
Important points:
- Member States are required to bind all current and former supervisory staff, auditors, and experts to professional secrecy obligations.
- Confidential information received by any authority or self-regulatory body through the permitted information-sharing channels may only be used for the discharge of its duties under this Directive or related Union legal acts, or in the context of relevant legal proceedings.
- Any exchange of information between financial supervisors and prudential supervisory authorities remains subject to the professional secrecy requirements established in this article.
Springlex's summary of the article, a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.
Member States shall require that all persons working for or who have worked for supervisors and the public authorities referred to in Article 52, as well as auditors or experts acting on behalf of those supervisors or authorities be bound by the obligation of professional secrecy.
Without prejudice to cases covered by criminal investigations and prosecutions under Union and national law and information provided to FIUs pursuant to Articles 42 and 43, confidential information which the persons referred to in the first subparagraph receive in the course of their duties under this Directive may be disclosed only in summary or aggregate form, in such a way that individual obliged entities cannot be identified.
Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not prevent the exchange of information between:
supervisors, whether within a Member State or in different Member States, including AMLA when acting as a supervisor or public authorities as referred to in Article 52 of this Directive;
supervisors as well as the public authorities referred to in Article 52 of this Directive and FIUs;
supervisors as well as the public authorities referred to in Article 52 of this Directive and competent authorities referred to in Article 2(1), points (44)(c) and (d) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624;
financial supervisors and authorities in charge of supervising credit institutions and financial institutions in accordance with other Union legal acts relating to the supervision of credit institutions and financial institutions, including the ECB acting in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1024/2013, whether within a Member State or in different Member States.
For the purposes of point (d) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph, the exchange of information shall be subject to the professional secrecy requirements provided for in paragraph 1.
Any authority or self-regulatory body that receives confidential information pursuant to paragraph 2 shall only use this information:
in the discharge of its duties under this Directive or under other Union legal acts in the field of AML/CFT, of prudential regulation and supervision of credit institutions and financial institutions, including sanctioning;
in an appeal against a decision of the authority or self-regulatory body, including court proceedings;
in court proceedings initiated pursuant to special provisions provided for in Union law adopted in the field of this Directive or in the field of prudential regulation and supervision of credit institutions and financial institutions.
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
financial mixed activity holding company
Definition
crypto-asset service provider
Definition
financial supervisor
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
Definition
property
Definition
competent authority
- 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;
Definition
terrorist financing
Definition
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
self-regulatory body
Definition
third country
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funds
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supervisory authority
Definition
obliged entity