AMLA — EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority

AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering Authority) is a new EU agency established by Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 and headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It is the EU's first supranational AML supervisory authority and is designed to complement, and for selected institutions replace, the previously fragmented national supervision with a centralised, consistent EU-level oversight.

• Direct supervision: AMLA takes over direct supervision of selected high-risk financial institutions (Phase 1: approximately 40 institutions)
• Indirect supervision: Coordination and oversight of national AML authorities for all other obliged entities
• Standard-setting: Development of regulatory technical standards (RTS), guidelines, and Q&As on the AMLR
• FIU coordination: Coordination of national Financial Intelligence Units via FIU.net
• Sanctioning powers: Authority to impose sanctions on supervised institutions

The idea of a central EU AML authority was first seriously discussed following the major money laundering scandals at European banks (2018–2019). A series of failings — fragmented supervision, inconsistent national implementation, lack of cross-border cooperation — made clear that the existing system was structurally inadequate. In July 2021, the Commission submitted the formal proposal for the AMLA founding regulation. After approximately two and a half years of trilogue negotiations, Frankfurt am Main (Germany) was selected as the seat in February 2024. The founding Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 entered into force on 26 June 2024. AMLA began operational activities on 1 July 2025 and adopted its Single Programming Document (SPD) for 2026–2028 in late 2025.

AMLA has EU-wide jurisdiction and directly supervises selected high-risk financial institutions (primarily credit institutions and certain crypto-asset service providers with cross-border operations). Indirect supervision extends to all obliged entities in the EU. AMLA also coordinates national FIUs within the FIU.net framework.

• Direct AML supervision of selected institutions: risk assessments, on-site inspections, enforcement decisions
• Indirect supervision: peer reviews of national authorities, binding recommendations
• Development of uniform technical standards (RTS/ITS) for the AMLR
• Coordination of national FIUs and support of cross-border analyses
• Sanctioning powers: periodic payments and fines up to 10% of annual turnover or EUR 10 million, whichever is higher
• Maintenance of a central register of compliance cases and sanctions

3 corrections:
- Frankfurt seat decision: Wrong date (22 Nov 2023 instead of 22 Feb 2024)
- Operational start: 1 January 2025 instead of 1 July 2025
- Direct supervision date misleading (1 July 2027 is selection, not supervision start)
1 update:
- Missing key milestones 2025-2026
2 clarifications.
1 note.