Leawood, Kansas – 10/10/2025: The European Union Legislature adopted Directive (EU) 2024/1640, referred to as the Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD6), on May 31, 2024. AMLD6 creates enhanced due diligence requirements, regulates the cooperation on the supervision for cross-border activities, adds new sanctions, and strengthens the rules for beneficial ownership registration, among other things. Along with AMLD6, the EU Legislature adopted Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR), which shall apply July 10, 2027, and Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 the AML Authority Regulation (AMLAR), which entered into force on July 1, 2025.
The EU Legislature consists of the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union. The European Commission proposes new Directives to the European Parliament where they may approve of the Commission’s proposal without modifications or amend the proposal. The European Council then may accept the European Parliament’s position, resulting in the adoption of the Directive, or they may amend the European Parliament’s position and return the proposal to Parliament for a second reading.
The Directives adopted by the EU Legislature applies to all of the Member states within the European Union. The European Union is an international economic and political alliance made up of 27 Member States. A Member State is a country that has applied to the European Commission, and the country has signed a Treaty of Accession, which outlines the conditions the applicant country must fulfill to become a Member State. The Member States of the European Union are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. A requirement for each Member State is that they must adopt the Directives issued by the EU Legislature. Each Directive contains a deadline for the date that the Member States must adopt the Directive into their own law and be in compliance with the Directive. This process is called “transposition.” For AMLD6, each Member State must transpose this Directive and be in compliance by July 10, 2027.
Scope of AMLD6 and Enhanced Due Diligence Requirements
Regarding the scope of AMLD6, the scope was broadened for the covered entities subject to the enhanced due diligence requirements. These covered entities are called “obliged entities,” and AMLD6 expands this definition to all crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), requiring all CASPs to conduct customer due diligence measures and monitor transactions. AMLD6 also extends the scope to encompass third-party financing intermediaries, such as individuals trading in precious metals and stones.
Enhanced Beneficial Ownership Registration Information
In an effort to create more transparency and combat the misuse of legal entities, AMLD6 requires Member States to maintain central beneficial ownership registers. This beneficial ownership information should be registered where the trustees and persons holding equivalent positions in similar legal arrangements are established, where they reside, or where the legal arrangement is administered. In order for the goals of the central beneficial ownership registers to work, the EU Legislature states that Member States must have an “interconnection” between Member States to make this information accessible amongst themselves. AMLD6 also clarifies what is considered “beneficial ownership,” and gave specific guidance on multi-layered ownership structures, for the purpose of how to determine when the public can access the central beneficial ownership registers in the Member States.
Implementation of Cross-Border Cooperation Requirements for the Supervision of Money Launder Between Member States and Third Countries
With the significant variations in practices and approaches across the Member States, the EU Legislature identified the need for clearer AML requirements for “smooth cooperation” across the Member States, while allowing the Member States “to take into account the specificities of their national systems.” The EU Legislature’s concerns with cross-border activities expands to third countries and acknowledges that these third countries may have a legitimate interest in accessing the beneficial ownership information held among the Member States’ legal entities given the cross-border nature of money laundering. Entities that are established in third countries and are subject to the AML requirements of their countries should be able to access the beneficial ownership information in the central registers if they are required to take customer due diligence measures because of a relationship to a legal entity and/or legal arrangements established in the Member States. Cross-border access to the beneficial ownership information registers should be granted based on the definition of legitimate interest.
New Sanctions under AMLD6
With the new sanctions, AMLD6 criminalizes not only the act of laundering money, but also related activities such as abetting, inciting, aiding, and attempting to launder funds. Criminalizing these related activities and issuing a list of 22 predicate offenses that constitute money laundering when their proceeds are involved were done to ensure that all Member States are prosecuting the same core crimes feeding into money laundering. For serious, repeated or systematic breaches, the maximum sanction amounts have been increased from EUR 5 million or 5% of total annual turnover, to EUR 10 million or 10% of total annual turnover. Additionally, it grants supervisors of the AMLD6 the ability to impose periodic penalty payments to compel compliance.
Other Amendments and Additions
This has been a very broad overview of some of the amendments and additions to the EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive. To view the EU Directive in its entirety, click here: Directive – EU – 2024/1640.
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