Art. 12 Disclosure of information related to the reporting of suspicious transactions | RTS on group-wide minimum requirements and additional measures for third-country subsidiaries and branches | AML

This article addresses a specific scenario where a third country's law blocks or restricts a branch or subsidiary from complying with the suspicious transaction disclosure requirements set out in Article 73 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624.

It sits within a broader set of articles (alongside Articles 10, 11, and 14) that each deal with a different type of third-country legal impediment, and it follows a similar escalating response logic: notify, mitigate, and if necessary, close down.

The article sets out what the parent undertaking in the Union or the obliged entity must do when it encounters this blockage, moving from mandatory notification and internal reporting obligations through to the application of additional measures drawn from Article 15, and ultimately to the option of closing down third-country operations if the ML/TF risk cannot be managed.

Important points:

Notify the home Member State supervisor within 28 calendar days of identifying a third-country restriction on suspicious transaction disclosures, specifying the country and the nature of the restriction.
Apply one or more of the additional measures listed in Article 15 to address the risk, and determine the extent of those measures on a risk-sensitive basis.
If the ML/TF risk still cannot be effectively managed after applying all available measures, close down some or all operations of the affected branch or subsidiary.

1. Where the parent undertaking in the Union or an obliged entity identifies that the law of a third country does not permit or restricts the application of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 by a subsidiary or a branch when it comes to the disclosure of information in compliance with Article 73 paragraphs 3 to 5 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, it shall at least:
  1. inform the supervisor of the home Member State without undue delay and in any case no later than 28 calendar days of the following:
    the name of the third country concerned;
    how the application of the law of the third country concerned does not permit or restricts the disclosure of information in compliance with Article 73 paragraphs 3 to 5 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624;
  2. require the branch or subsidiary in the third country to provide relevant information to the senior management of the parent undertaking in the Union or of the obliged entity so that it is able to assess the money laundering and terrorist financing risk associated with the operation of such a branch or subsidiary and the impact this has on the obliged entity and the group, such as:
    the number of suspicious transactions reported within a set period;
    aggregated statistical data providing an overview of the circumstances that gave rise to suspicion.
1. The parent undertaking in the Union or the obliged entity shall take one or more of the additional measures set out in Article 15 paragraph 1 points (a) to (c) and (g) to (h) of this Regulation.
1. Where a parent undertaking in the Union or an obliged entity cannot effectively manage the money laundering and terrorist financing risk by applying the measures referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, it shall close down some or all of the operations provided by its branch or subsidiary established in the third country.
1. The parent undertaking or the obliged entity shall always determine the extent of the required additional measures set out in paragraph 2 and 3 of this Article on a risk-sensitive basis and shall inform without undue delay the supervisor of the home Member State that the extent of the additional measures is appropriate in view of the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.