Preamble Recitals

For the purposes of enhancing uniformity and facilitating the data processing for incoming and outgoing information flows, it is appropriate to specify the format for the exchanges of information between Financial Intelligence Units (hereinafter ‘FIUs’) referred to in Article 31(1) and (2) of the Directive (EU) 2024/1640.

In order to ensure effective cooperation between FIUs and to guarantee an appropriate level of detail in the information exchanged, multiple templates for exchange of information between FIUs are provided in this Regulation.

The templates provided should be guided by the principles of simplicity, flexibility, compatibility and neutrality.

In order to enhance the timely and effective exchange of information between FIUs and to allow the prompt forwarding of the report which concerns another Member State, or all the relevant information obtained from it, to the FIU of that other Member State, it is essential to provide templates that are sufficiently flexible to serve multiple purposes within a single document.

For the same reason, the procedure for granting prior consent to the dissemination of information should be simplified, so as to avoid unnecessary delays in the cooperation process.

To facilitate their effective use by all FIUs, the templates should be provided in a neutral form, enabling their integration both into the management systems of the respective FIUs and into FIU.net, which remains the sole channel for exchanging information between FIUs pursuant to Article 30(2) of the Directive (EU) 2024/1640.

To ensure that information exchanges between FIUs are clear, comprehensive and consistent, thereby supporting effective cooperation and enabling receiving authorities to properly assess, understand and use the information provided, it is necessary to establish uniform requirements defining the minimum content to be included in the templates.

In order to enable each FIU to adequately adapt its IT system to FIU.net and to ensure effective compliance with the requirements set out in this Regulation without generating disproportionate manual workloads, it is necessary to allow sufficient time for the development and automation of the processes required to populate the relevant templates. To avoid operational inefficiencies and ensure a smooth and harmonised implementation across all FIUs, the application of the provisions requiring the use of FIU.net exclusively through the completion of the designated template fields should therefore be deferred. This deferral shall not affect the immediate applicability of the mandatory nature of the information required under this Regulation, nor of the uniformed formulas used for obtaining consent. To this end, the content of the mandatory fields in the Annexes should be included in the current FIU.net data structure or in separate attachments since the twentieth day following that of the ITS publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Simplification is a core component of the mandate of the Authority. By introducing standardised formats, the instrument reduces administrative burdens and enhances the efficiency of cooperation among FIUs.

This Regulation is based on the draft implementing technical standards submitted to the Commission by the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism.

The Authority has consulted the FIUs and has conducted open public consultations through a public hearing on the draft regulatory technical standards on which this Regulation is based and analysed the potential related costs and benefits. Given that this regulation concerns exclusively the exchange of information between FIUs and imposes no direct obligations on private entities, a shortened open public consultation was proportionate,