Art. 68 Exchange of information among supervisors and with other authorities | Sixth anti-money laundering (AML 6) directive | AML

This article governs the cross-boundary flow of confidential supervisory information, carving out permitted channels for information exchange that would otherwise be constrained by the professional secrecy rules established in Article 67.

It operates as a controlled exception to those secrecy obligations, mandating that Member States allow information sharing between AML/CFT supervisors and a range of other oversight bodies — including financial market supervisors, audit oversight authorities, and self-regulatory body overseers — while also giving Member States discretion to extend disclosure further to bodies such as parliamentary inquiry committees and courts of auditors, subject to strict conditions.

Important points:

Member States are required to authorise information exchange between supervisors and related oversight authorities (including across borders), and professional secrecy rules cannot be used to block these exchanges.
Any confidential information exchanged under this article can only be used for the discharge of the receiving authority's own duties, and those recipients must maintain secrecy standards equivalent to those in Article 67.
Member States may optionally permit disclosure to parliamentary inquiry committees, courts of auditors, and European Parliament committees of inquiry, but only where a precise legal mandate exists, the information is strictly necessary, and cross-border disclosures require the express consent of the originating supervisor.

1. With the exception of cases covered by Article 70(2) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, Member States shall authorise the exchange of information between:
  1. supervisors and the public authorities overseeing self-regulatory bodies pursuant to Chapter IV of this Directive, whether in the same Member State or in different Member States;
  2. supervisors and the authorities responsible by law for the supervision of financial markets in the discharge of their respective supervisory functions;
  3. supervisors in charge of auditors and, where relevant, public authorities overseeing self-regulatory bodies pursuant to Chapter IV of this Directive, and the public authorities competent for overseeing statutory auditors and audit firms pursuant to Article 32 of Directive 2006/43/EC and Article 20 of Regulation (EU) No 537/2014, including authorities in different Member States.
2. The professional secrecy requirements laid down in Article 67(1) and (3) shall not prevent the exchange of information referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph.
3. Confidential information exchanged pursuant to this paragraph shall only be used in the discharge of the duties of the authorities concerned, and in the context of administrative or judicial proceedings specifically related to the exercise of those functions. The information received shall in any event be subject to professional secrecy requirements at least equivalent to those referred to in Article 67(1).
1. Member States may authorise the disclosure of certain information to other national authorities responsible by law for the supervision of the financial markets, or with designated responsibilities in the field of combating or investigating money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing. The professional secrecy requirements laid down Article 67(1) and (3) shall not prevent such disclosure.
2. However, confidential information exchanged pursuant to this paragraph shall only be used for the purpose of performing the legal tasks of the authorities concerned. Persons having access to such information shall be subject to professional secrecy requirements at least equivalent to those referred to in Article 67(1).
1. Member States may authorise the disclosure of certain information relating to the supervision of obliged entities for compliance with Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 to parliamentary inquiry committees, courts of auditors and other entities in charge of inquiries in their Member State, under the following conditions:
  1. the entities have a precise mandate under national law to investigate or scrutinise the actions of supervisors or authorities responsible for laws on such supervision;
  2. the information is strictly necessary for fulfilling the mandate referred to in point (a);
  3. the persons with access to the information are subject to professional secrecy requirements under national law at least equivalent to those referred to in paragraph 1;
  4. where the information originates in another Member State, it shall not be disclosed without the express consent of the supervisor which disclosed it and solely for the purposes for which that supervisor gave its consent.
2. Member States may also authorise the disclosure of information pursuant to the first subparagraph of this paragraph to temporary committees of inquiry set up by the European Parliament in accordance with Article 226 TFEU and Article 2 of Decision 95/167/EC, Euratom, ECSC of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission(⁴⁷), where that disclosure is necessary for the performance of the activities of those committees.