AMLD: Anti Money Laundering Directive (European Union)

Fighting money laundering and terrorist financing contributes is a key European Union goal, and as part of this process, the European Union issues directives. On 19 June 2018 the 5^th anti-money laundering Directive (Directive (EU) 2018/843), which amended the 4^th anti-money laundering Directive, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Member States had to transpose this Directive by 10 January 2020.

These amendments introduced substantial improvement to better equip the Union to prevent the financial system from being used for money laundering and for funding terrorist activities.

These amendments were introduced to

• enhance transparency by setting up publicly available registers for companies, trusts and other legal arrangements;
• enhance the powers of EU Financial Intelligence Units, and provide them with access to broad information for the carrying out of their tasks;
• limit the anonymity related to virtual currencies and wallet providers, but also for pre-paid cards;
• broaden the criteria for the assessment of high-risk third countries and improve the safeguards for financial transactions to and from such countries;
• set up central bank account registries or retrieval systems in all Member States;
• improve the cooperation and enhance of information between anti-money laundering supervisors between them and between them and prudential supervisors and the European Central Bank.

Date of entry into force

19 June 2018

Date that the rules apply

10 January 2020