EU’s new Anti-Money Laundering Authority to be based in Germany

LONDON

The European Union said Thursday that the German city of Frankfurt will host the bloc's new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA).

"Today, (European) Council and European Parliament representatives reached an agreement on the seat of the future European authority for anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing," the European Council said in a statement.

It noted that AMLA will begin operations in mid-2025 and have more than 400 staff members.

AMLA, the centerpiece of the reform of the EU’s anti-money laundering framework, will have "direct and indirect supervisory powers" over obliged entities and the power to impose sanctions and measures.

"The final agreement on the location of AMLA’s seat was made by the co-legislators in an informal inter-institutional meeting at the political level, where the Parliament’s and the Council’s representatives voted together at the same time with 27 votes attributed to each co-legislator," the statement added.

It followed after the European Commission presented a package of legislative proposals in July 2021 to strengthen the bloc's rules on anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing.