Source: AMLA consultation paper draft
- Anti-money laundering
AMLR supplemental acts
- RTS on group-wide minimum requirements and additional measures for third-country subsidiaries and branches
Article 15 Additional Measures
This is a draft act
This text has been parsed from the AMLA consultation paper draft as published on 16 April 2026. While we run a suite of validations, the automated parsing can result in errors. Also, before it is finally adopted by the Commission, its wording, numbering and references may change, and entire articles might be removed or added.
Summary What does Article 15 of the RTS on group-wide minimum requirements and additional measures for third-country subsidiaries and branches say?
This article serves as a menu of additional measures that the parent undertaking in the Union or an obliged entity must draw from when third-country law creates obstacles to applying EU AML/CFT requirements.
It is directly linked to Articles 10, 11, 12, and 14, which each address a specific type of legal impediment — such as restrictions on customer due diligence, information sharing, suspicious transaction reporting, or record retention — and which each refer back to this article when consent from customers cannot overcome those restrictions.
The measures available range from restricting the products and services offered by a third-country branch or subsidiary, to enhanced monitoring, to requiring senior management sign-off on higher-risk relationships, to ensuring suspicious transaction report information is shared up the chain.
Important points:
- Apply one or more of the listed additional measures when third-country legal restrictions prevent full compliance, as triggered by Articles 10, 11, 12, or 14.
- Third-country branches or subsidiaries must seek prior approval from the senior management of the parent undertaking or obliged entity before establishing or maintaining higher-risk business relationships or carrying out higher-risk occasional transactions.
- Enhanced ongoing monitoring of business relationships and customers — including those who have been the subject of a suspicious transaction report within the group — must be maintained until the ML/TF risk is sufficiently understood.
Springlex's summary of the article, a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.
Without prejudice to any measures taken under Articles 16 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 and this Regulation, the parent undertaking in the Union or an obliged entity shall take one or more of the following additional measures pursuant to Article 10(2), Article 11(2), Article 12(2), and Article 14(2) of this Regulation respectively:
ensuring that its branch or subsidiary established in the third country restricts the nature and type of products and services provided by the branch or subsidiary in the third country to those that present a low money laundering and terrorist financing risk and have a low impact on the group's risk exposure;
ensuring that other obliged entities of the same group do not rely on customer due diligence measures carried out by a branch or subsidiary established in the third country, but instead carry out customer due diligence on any customer of a branch or subsidiary established in the third country who wishes to be provided with products or services by any other branch or subsidiary of the same group;
carrying out enhanced reviews, including, where this is commensurate with the money laundering and terrorist financing risk associated with the operation of the branch or subsidiary established in the third country, on-site checks or ordering the performance of independent audits, to be satisfied that the branch or subsidiary effectively identifies, assesses and manages the money laundering and terrorist financing risks;
ensuring that their branches or subsidiaries established in the third country seek prior approval from the senior management of the parent undertaking or the obliged entity for the establishment and maintenance of higher-risk business relationships, or for carrying out of higher-risk occasional transactions;
ensuring that their branches or subsidiaries established in the third country determine and document the source of funds and wealth and, where applicable, the destination of funds to be used in the business relationship or occasional transaction;
ensuring that their branches or subsidiaries established in the third country carry out enhanced ongoing monitoring of the business relationship including enhanced transaction monitoring, until the branches or subsidiaries are reasonably satisfied that they understand the money laundering and terrorist financing risk associated with the business relationship and enhanced ongoing monitoring is no longer needed in view of the risk situation;
ensuring that their branches or subsidiaries established in the third country share with the parent undertaking or the obliged entity the underlying suspicious transaction report information that gave rise to the knowledge, suspicion or reasonable grounds to suspect that money laundering and terrorist financing was attempted or occurred, such as facts, transactions, circumstances and documents upon which the knowledge or suspicions are based, including personal data to the extent permissible under the law of the third country;
carrying out enhanced ongoing monitoring of any customer and, where applicable, beneficial owner of a customer of a branch or subsidiary established in the third country who is known to have been the subject of a suspicious transaction report filed by another entity within the same group;
ensuring that their branches or subsidiaries established in the third country keep the risk profile and due diligence information related to a customer of a branch or subsidiary established in the third country up-to-date and secure as long as legally possible, and in any case for at least the duration of the business relationship.
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
senior management
Definition
financial mixed activity holding company
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
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
express trust
Definition
legal arrangement
Definition
management body
Definition
terrorist financing
Definition
group
Definition
money laundering
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
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beneficial owner
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business relationship
Definition
management body in its management function