AML Regulation – impact and requirements
- Changes in the directory of obliged institutions:
- providers of services related to cryptoassets, previously outside the scope of the AML Regulation, including those engaged in activities connected with cryptoassets of a purely investment nature
- crowdfunding platform operators not falling within the scope of Regulation 2020/1503 of 7 October 2020 on European crowdfunding service providers for business ventures and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 and Directive (EU) 2019/1937
- entities granting and intermediating consumer credit and mortgage credit that are not credit institutions or financial institutions
- immigration service providers in connection with investor residency programs
- removal from the catalog of obliged institutions entrepreneurs accepting payments in cash for goods with a value equal to or exceeding EUR 10,000 (except for precious metals and stones)
- More detailed rules on the requirements for internal procedures and documentation implemented in obliged institutions, in particular on the organization of the obliged institution (rules for verification of employees and staffing of positions related to AML, compliance function and internal audit function). The draft AML Regulation additionally includes more detailed requirements addressed to groups that are to be subject to regulatory technical standards.
- The provisions on customer due diligence measures are essentially transposed from the current AML Directive. Compared to the current AML Directive, the AML Regulation will contain more detailed regulations on customer identification and identity verification. The EU AML supervisor will be empowered to adopt regulatory technical standards on customer due diligence principles.
- The draft AML Regulation, while relying on the existing principles, also specifies in more detail the conditions for obliged institutions to rely on due diligence measures performed by other obliged institutions and outsourcing in this respect.
- The existing principles on beneficial owners will be maintained, while the draft AML Regulation provides for more detailed and harmonized rules for determining such principles. The draft provides for disclosure obligations with respect to nominal shareholders and nominal board members and also requires third country entities that enter into business relationships with EU obliged institutions or acquire real estate in the EU to register their beneficial owners.
- The AML Regulation also prohibits businesses trading in goods or services from accepting payments in cash equivalent to or exceeding €10,000.