Source: OJ L, 2024/1620, 19.6.2024Current language: EN
- Anti-money laundering
Basic legislative acts
- Anti-money laundering authority regulation (AMLAR)
Article 5 Tasks
Summary What does Article 5 of the Anti-money laundering authority regulation (AMLAR) say?
This is one of the most important foundational articles in the regulation, as it sets out the full scope of the Authority's operational mandate.
It is exceptionally detailed, structured around five distinct functional areas: general AML/CFT risk monitoring across the internal market, direct supervision of selected obliged entities, oversight and coordination of financial supervisors, engagement with non-financial supervisors, and support for Financial Intelligence Units.
Taken together, the article positions the Authority as the central hub of the Union's AML/CFT architecture, with roles ranging from hands-on direct supervision to intelligence-sharing, peer reviews, mediation, and FIU coordination.
The powers and tasks described here are then given legal teeth through Article 6, which sets out the corresponding supervisory and investigative powers the Authority holds to carry out these tasks.
Important points:
- The Authority is required to directly supervise selected obliged entities, including carrying out supervisory reviews, imposing requirements, and applying administrative measures and pecuniary sanctions.
- The Authority has distinct sets of tasks for financial supervisors and non-financial supervisors, including settling disagreements with binding effect in the financial sector, and issuing recommendations and warnings in the non-financial sector.
- The Authority is required to support FIUs through a wide range of activities, including coordinating joint analyses of cross-border cases and hosting FIU.net.
Springlex's summary of the article, a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.
The Authority shall perform the following tasks with respect to ML/TF risks facing the internal market:
monitor developments across the internal market and assess threats, vulnerabilities and risks in relation to ML/TF;
monitor developments in third countries and assess threats, vulnerabilities and risks in relation to their AML/CFT systems that have an actual or potential impact on the internal market;
collect and analyse information, from its own supervisory activities and those of the supervisors and supervisory authorities, on weaknesses identified in the application of AML/CFT rules by obliged entities, the risk exposure of obliged entities, the sanctions imposed and the remedial actions taken;
establish a central AML/CFT database of information collected from supervisory authorities or stemming from the Authority’s activities, and keep it up to date;
analyse the information collected in the central database and share those analyses with supervisors, supervisory authorities and non-AML/CFT authorities on a need-to-know and confidential basis;
support the analysis of risks of ML/TF and of non-implementation and evasion of targeted financial sanctions affecting the internal market, referred to in Article 7 of Directive (EU) 2024/1640;
support, facilitate and strengthen cooperation and exchange of information between obliged entities and supervisors, supervisory authorities and non-AML/CFT authorities in order to develop a common understanding of ML/TF risks and threats facing the internal market, including by participating in partnerships for information sharing in the field of AML/CFT;
issue publications and provide training, as well as other services on demand, in order to raise awareness of, and address, ML/TF risks;
report to the Commission any instances where the Authority, in the performance of its tasks, discovers that a Member State has transposed Directive (EU) 2024/1640 incorrectly or incompletely;
undertake any other specific task set out in this Regulation or in the other legislative acts referred to in Article 1(2).
The Authority shall perform the following tasks with respect to selected obliged entities:
ensure compliance of the selected obliged entities with the requirements applicable to them pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 and Regulation (EU) 2023/1113, including obligations related to the implementation of targeted financial sanctions;
carry out supervisory reviews and assessments at the level of individual entities and at group-wide level in order to determine whether the internal policies, procedures and controls put in place by the selected obliged entities are adequate to comply with the requirements applicable to them, and on the basis of those supervisory reviews and assessments impose specific requirements, apply administrative measures and impose pecuniary sanctions and periodic penalty payments pursuant to Articles 21, 22 and 23;
participate in group-wide supervision, in particular in AML/CFT supervisory colleges, including where a selected obliged entity is part of a group that has headquarters, subsidiaries or branches outside the Union;
develop and keep up to date a system to assess the risks and vulnerabilities of the selected obliged entities, in order to inform the supervisory activities of the Authority and the supervisory authorities, including through the collection of data from those entities by means of structured questionnaires and other online or offline tools.
The Authority shall perform the following tasks with respect to financial supervisors:
maintain an up-to-date list of financial supervisors within the Union;
carry out periodic assessments to ensure that all financial supervisors have adequate resources, powers and strategies necessary for the performance of their tasks in the area of AML/CFT, and make the results of such assessments available;
take, in response to a request by financial supervisors for the Authority to assume direct supervision or on the Authority’s own initiative, appropriate measures in exceptional circumstances requiring the Authority’s intervention and related to non-selected obliged entities’ compliance or risk exposure;
facilitate the functioning of the AML/CFT supervisory colleges in the financial sector;
contribute, in collaboration with financial supervisors, to the convergence of supervisory practices and the promotion of high supervisory standards in the area of AML/CFT, including in relation to verification of compliance with AML/CFT requirements related to targeted financial sanctions;
coordinate staff and information exchanges among financial supervisors in the Union in the area of AML/CFT;
provide assistance, in the area of AML/CFT, to financial supervisors, following their specific requests, including requests to mediate between financial supervisors;
settle, with binding effect, disagreements between financial supervisors concerning the measures to be taken in relation to an obliged entity, including in the context of AML/CFT supervisory colleges, following a specific request as referred to in point (g).
The Authority shall perform the following tasks with respect to non-financial supervisors:
maintain an up-to-date list of non-financial supervisors within the Union;
coordinate peer reviews of supervisory standards and practices in the area of AML/CFT;
in the area of AML/CFT, investigate potential breaches or non-application of Union law by non-financial supervisors and public authorities overseeing self-regulatory bodies, issue recommendations on how to remedy the identified breaches and, where the supervisors or public authorities do not comply with the recommendations, issue warnings identifying the measures to be implemented to mitigate the effects of the breach;
carry out periodic reviews to ensure that all non-financial supervisors have adequate resources and powers necessary for the performance of their tasks in the area of AML/CFT;
contribute to the convergence of supervisory practices and the promotion of high supervisory standards in the area of AML/CFT;
facilitate the functioning of AML/CFT supervisory colleges in the non-financial sector;
provide assistance to non-financial supervisors, following their specific requests, such as requests to mediate between non-financial supervisors in the event of a disagreement on the measures to be taken in relation to an obliged entity, including in the context of AML/CFT supervisory colleges.
Where supervision of specific sectors is delegated at national level to self-regulatory bodies, the Authority shall exercise the tasks set out in the first subparagraph in relation to supervisory authorities overseeing the activities of those bodies.
The Authority shall perform the following tasks with respect to FIUs and their activities in Member States:
maintain an up-to-date list of FIUs within the Union;
monitor changes in the legal framework of FIUs, as well as in their organisation, focusing on resources for the performance of their tasks;
support the work of FIUs and contribute to improved cooperation and coordination between FIUs;
contribute to the identification and the selection of relevant cases for the conduct of joint analyses by FIUs;
develop appropriate methods and procedures for the conduct of joint analyses by FIUs of cross-border cases;
set up, coordinate, organise and facilitate the conduct of joint analyses carried out by FIUs;
provide assistance to FIUs, upon their specific requests, such as requests for mediation in the case of a disagreement between FIUs;
conduct peer reviews of the activities of FIUs aimed at strengthening their consistency and effectiveness and identifying best practices;
develop and make available to FIUs tools and services to enhance their analysis capabilities, as well as IT and artificial intelligence services and tools for secure information sharing, including by hosting FIU.net;
develop, share and promote expert knowledge on detection, analysis, and dissemination methods of suspicious transactions;
at the request of FIUs, provide them with specialised training and assistance, including through the provision of financial support, within the scope of the Authority’s objectives and in accordance with the staffing and budgetary resources at its disposal;
support, at the request of FIUs, their interaction with obliged entities by providing expert knowledge to obliged entities, including improving their awareness and procedures to detect suspicious activities and transactions and their reporting to the FIUs;
prepare and coordinate assessments and strategic analyses of ML/TF threats, risks and methods identified by FIUs.
For the purpose of carrying out the tasks conferred on it by this Regulation, the Authority shall apply all relevant Union law, and where that Union law is composed of directives, the national legislation transposing those directives. Where the applicable law is composed of regulations, and where currently those regulations expressly grant options for Member States, the Authority shall apply also the national legislation exercising those options.
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
non-selected obliged entity
Definition
crypto-asset service provider
Definition
funds or other assets
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
parent undertaking
- for groups whose head office is located in the Union, an obliged entity that is a parent undertaking as defined in Article 2, point (9), of Directive 2013/34/EU that is not itself a subsidiary of another undertaking in the Union, provided that at least one subsidiary undertaking is an obliged entity;
- for groups whose head office is located outside of the Union, where at least two subsidiary undertakings are obliged entities established in the Union, an undertaking within that group established in the Union that:
- is an obliged entity;
- is an undertaking that is not a subsidiary of another undertaking that is an obliged entity established in the Union;
- has a sufficient prominence within the group and a sufficient understanding of the operations of the group that are subject to the requirements of this Regulation; and
- is given the responsibility of implementing group-wide requirements under Chapter II, Section 2 of this Regulation;
Definition
partnership for information sharing
Definition
selected obliged entity
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
targeted financial sanctions
Definition
group
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
Definition
non-AML/CFT authority
- a competent authority as defined in Article 4(1), point (40), of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council(27);
- the European Central Bank (ECB), when it carries out the tasks conferred on it by Regulation (EU) No 1024/2013;
- a resolution authority designated in accordance with Article 3 of Directive 2014/59/EU;
- a designated authority as defined in Article 2(1), point (18), of Directive 2014/49/EU;
- a competent authority as defined in Article 3(1), point (35), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114.
Definition
funds
Definition
supervisory authority