Source: OJ L, 2024/1620, 19.6.2024Current language: EN
- Anti-money laundering
Basic legislative acts
- Anti-money laundering authority regulation (AMLAR)
Article 6 Powers of the Authority
Summary What does Article 6 of the Anti-money laundering authority regulation (AMLAR) say?
This article is a foundational powers article that maps out the full toolkit available to the Authority across its different areas of operation.
It works in close conjunction with Article 5, which sets out the Authority's tasks, by detailing the specific powers the Authority holds to carry out those tasks.
The article covers four distinct relationships: with selected obliged entities under direct supervision, with supervisors and supervisory authorities, with FIUs, and in relation to its general market oversight tasks.
The Authority's powers range from hard enforcement tools such as binding decisions, pecuniary sanctions, and periodic penalty payments against directly supervised entities, to softer coordination tools such as guidelines, recommendations, mediation, and binding dispute settlement when dealing with national supervisors.
Important points:
- The Authority holds the same AML/CFT powers as financial supervisors under applicable Union law with respect to selected obliged entities, and can issue binding decisions and impose sanctions against them for non-compliance.
- The Authority can instruct financial supervisors to use their own national powers where the Regulation does not itself confer the equivalent power on the Authority.
- The Authority's powers over FIUs are limited to information gathering, data collection for joint analyses, and issuing guidelines and recommendations — there is no direct enforcement power over FIUs.
Springlex's summary of the article, a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.
With respect to the selected obliged entities, the Authority shall have the supervisory and investigative powers as specified in Articles 17 to 21 and the power to impose pecuniary sanctions and periodic penalty payments as specified in Articles 22 and 23.
The Authority shall also have the powers and obligations which financial supervisors have in the area of AML/CFT under the applicable Union law, unless otherwise provided for by this Regulation.
To the extent necessary to carry out the tasks conferred on it by this Regulation, the Authority may require financial supervisors, by way of instructions, to make use of their powers in the area of AML/CFT, under and in accordance with the conditions set out in national law, where this Regulation does not confer such powers on the Authority.
For the purposes of exercising the powers referred to in the first and second subparagraphs, the Authority may issue binding decisions addressed to individual selected obliged entities. The Authority shall have the power to apply administrative measures and impose pecuniary sanctions for non-compliance with the decisions taken in the exercise of the power laid down in Article 21 in accordance with Article 22.
With respect to supervisors and supervisory authorities, the Authority shall have the following powers:
to require the submission of information or documents, including written or oral explanations, necessary for the performance of its functions, including statistical information and information concerning internal processes or arrangements of national supervisors and supervisory authorities, and to access that information in and extract it from the common structured questionnaires and other online and offline tools developed by the Authority;
to issue guidelines and recommendations;
to issue requests to act and instructions on measures to be taken in relation to non-selected obliged entities pursuant to Chapter II, Section 4;
to carry out mediation upon the request of a financial supervisor or of a non-financial supervisor;
upon the request of financial supervisors, to settle, with binding effect, disagreements between financial supervisors, including in the context of the AML/CFT supervisory colleges.
With respect to FIUs in Member States, the Authority shall have the following powers:
to request non-operational data and analyses from FIUs, where they are necessary for the assessment of threats, vulnerabilities and risks facing the internal market in relation to ML/TF;
to collect information and statistics in relation to the tasks and activities of FIUs;
to obtain and process information and data required for initiating, conducting and coordinating joint analyses as specified in Article 40;
to issue guidelines and recommendations.
For the purposes of carrying out the tasks set out in Article 5(1), the Authority shall have the following powers:
to develop draft regulatory technical standards in accordance with Article 49;
to develop draft implementing technical standards in accordance with Article 53;
to issue guidelines and recommendations, as provided for in Article 54;
to provide opinions to the European Parliament, to the Council and to the Commission, as provided for in Article 55.
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
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
selected obliged entity
Definition
crypto-asset
Definition
property
Definition
group
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
funds
Definition
supervisory authority