Art. 61 Voting rules of the General Board | Anti-money laundering authority regulation (AMLAR) | AML

This article sets out the voting rules and procedures for the General Board of the Authority.

It establishes a default simple majority rule for most decisions, but carves out a higher qualified majority threshold for specific, more significant acts — namely those relating to technical standards, guidelines, recommendations, and opinions covered by Articles 49, 53, 54, and 55.

The article also addresses the Chair's role in voting, participation restrictions for non-voting members and observers in sensitive discussions, and closes with a general aspiration toward consensus-based decision-making.

Important points:

The General Board takes decisions by simple majority as a default, with the Chair of the Authority holding a casting vote in the event of a tie.
A qualified majority is required for decisions on technical standards, guidelines, recommendations, and opinions — and the Chair of the Authority has no vote in those cases, nor on certain performance-related decisions covered by Article 63(5).
Non-voting members and observers are excluded from General Board discussions in supervisory composition relating to individual obliged entities, with an exception carved out for Executive Board members and the ECB representative nominated by the ECB's Supervisory Board.

1. Decisions of the General Board shall be taken by a simple majority of its members. Each voting member as determined by Article 57(2) and (3) shall have one vote. In the event of a tied vote, the Chair of the Authority shall have a casting vote.
1. By way of derogation from paragraph 1 of this Article, the General Board shall, with regard to the acts referred to in Articles 49, 53, 54 and 55 of this Regulation, take decisions on the basis of a qualified majority of its members, as provided for in Article 16(4) TEU.
2. The Chair of the Authority shall not vote on the decisions referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph, the opinions referred to in Article 60(2) or the decisions related to the evaluation of the performance of the Executive Board referred to in Article 63(5).
1. The members without the right to vote and the observers shall not attend any discussions held within the General Board in supervisory composition relating to individual obliged entities, unless otherwise provided for in the legislative acts referred to in Article 1(2) or otherwise decided upon by the members with the right to vote.
1. Paragraph 3 shall not apply to the Executive Board members and the ECB representative nominated by the Supervisory Board of the ECB.
1. The Chair of the Authority shall have the prerogative to call a vote at any time. Without prejudice to that prerogative and to the effectiveness of the Authority’s decision-making procedures, the General Board shall strive for consensus when taking its decisions.