Source: OJ L, 2024/1624, 19.6.2024Current language: EN
- Anti-money laundering
Basic legislative acts
- Anti-money laundering regulation (AMLR)
Article 35 Countermeasures to mitigate money laundering and terrorist financing threats from outside the Union
Summary What does Article 35 of the Anti-money laundering regulation (AMLR) say?
This article serves as a menu of available countermeasures that the Commission may select from when designating high-risk third countries under Articles 29 and 31.
It is a supporting article to those identification mechanisms, providing the toolkit from which specific countermeasures are drawn.
The measures are split into two tiers: those that obliged entities themselves must apply when dealing with persons or entities from high-risk third countries, and those that Member States must apply at a structural or supervisory level with regard to those countries.
Important points:
- The Commission selects from this menu of countermeasures when designating high-risk or threatening third countries under Articles 29 and 31 — this article does not itself trigger any obligations.
- Apply additional enhanced due diligence, enhanced reporting, or restrict business relationships and transactions with persons or entities from the relevant third countries, where the Commission selects those measures for obliged entities.
- Member States are required to implement structural measures — such as refusing to allow branches of obliged entities from the third country concerned, prohibiting obliged entities from establishing a presence there, increasing supervisory or audit requirements, or requiring credit institutions and financial institutions to review or terminate correspondent relationships with respondent institutions in that country.
Springlex's summary of the article, a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.
For the purposes of Articles 29 and 31, the Commission may choose from among the following countermeasures:
countermeasures that obliged entities are to apply to persons and legal entities involving high-risk third countries and, where relevant, other countries posing a threat to the Union’s financial system consisting in:
the application of additional elements of enhanced due diligence;
the introduction of enhanced relevant reporting mechanisms or systematic reporting of financial transactions;
the limitation of business relationships or transactions with natural persons or legal entities from those third countries;
countermeasures that Member States are to apply with regard to high-risk third countries and, where relevant, other countries posing a threat to the Union’s financial system consisting in:
refusing the establishment of subsidiaries or branches or representative offices of obliged entities from the country concerned, or otherwise taking into account the fact that the relevant obliged entity is from a third country that does not have adequate AML/CFT regimes;
prohibiting obliged entities from establishing branches or representative offices in the third country concerned, or otherwise taking into account the fact that the relevant branch or representative office would be in a third country that does not have adequate AML/CFT regimes;
requiring increased supervisory examination or increased external audit requirements for branches and subsidiaries of obliged entities located in the third country concerned;
requiring increased external audit requirements for financial groups with respect to any of their branches and subsidiaries located in the third country concerned;
requiring credit institutions and financial institutions to review and amend, or if necessary terminate, correspondent relationships with respondent institutions in the third country concerned.
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
financial mixed activity holding company
Definition
crypto-asset service provider
Definition
cash
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
crypto-asset
Definition
establishment
- a branch or subsidiary;
- in the case of credit institutions and financial institutions, an infrastructure qualifying as an establishment under prudential regulation;
Definition
property
Definition
correspondent relationship
- the provision of banking services by one credit institution as the correspondent to another credit institution as the respondent, including providing a current or other liability account and related services, such as cash management, international transfers of funds as defined in Article 4, point (25), of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, cheque clearing, payable-through accounts and foreign exchange services;
- the relationships between and among credit institutions and financial institutions including where similar services are provided by a correspondent institution to a respondent institution, and including relationships established for securities transactions or transfers of funds as defined in Article 4, point (25), of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, transactions in crypto-assets or transfers of crypto-assets;
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
third country
Definition
funds
Definition
business relationship