On 6 March 2025, the European Banking Authority
(EBA) published a consultation paper setting out draft
Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS). The draft
RTS have been issued in response to the European Commission's
(Commission) Call for Advice. The draft RTS form part of
EU's Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of
Terrorism (AML/CTF) package that was published in
the Official Journal of the EU on 19 June 2024.
The draft RTS addresses several important aspects of the EU AML/CFT
framework, notably:
- Criteria for selection of institutions to be subject to direct AMLA supervision (Article 12(7) of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority Regulation (AMLAR)): AMLA will initially identify institutions for direct supervision based on their cross-border activities. Subsequently, AMLA will apply a harmonised methodology to assess money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) risks uniformly.
- Introduction of a harmonised ML/TF risk assessment methodology (Article 40(2) of the Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD6)). This uniform approach is intended to ensure that entity-level risk assessments of institutions carried out by Supervisory Authorities (SAs) are consistent across Member States and to reduce compliance burdens for cross-border firms.
- Customer due diligence (CDD) standards (Article 28(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR)): The EBA is proposing a framework outlining the types of documents and sources of information that institutions should consult during CDD processes.
- Sanctions and administrative measures (Article 53(10) of AMLD6): The EBA is proposing uniform indicators and criteria to be taken into account when setting the level of pecuniary sanctions or taking administrative measures including a methodology on how to impose periodic penalty payments. This aims to ensure that AML/CTF breaches are assessed in the same way by all supervisors across the EU and that the enforcement action is proportionate, dissuasive and effective.
Consultation process
The consultation runs until 6 June 2025, after which the EBA will review submissions and finalise the RTS for its response to the Commission's call for advice. The EBA will also hold a virtual public hearing on the consultation paper on 10 April 2025. The deadline for registration is 8 April 2025.
Next steps
The EBA will submit the standards to the European Commission on 31 October 2025.
A copy of the EBA's press release is available here.
Originally published 12 March 2025
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