With the date of transposition of the 4^th Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Directive still in discussion, the Council of the European Union has recently published its first compromise text for the 5^th AML Directive.

The following are some of the proposals being outlined by these amendments:

1. Extending AML monitoring by competent authorities to cover providers engaged in exchange services between virtual currencies and fiat currencies and custodian wallet providers;
2. Implementing changes making it harder to use pre-paid cards and crypto-currencies to fund criminal activity;
3. Applying enhanced customer due diligence measures to manage and mitigate cases of high risk and cases where natural persons or legal entities are established in high-risk jurisdictions;
4. Clarifications and strengthening of the beneficial ownership transparency rules for companies and trusts ensuring improved access to beneficial ownership registers instilling further confidence in financial markets and investors;
5. The inclusion of specific clauses encouraging information exchange and cooperation between regulators;
6. Confirmation that the 4^th AML Directive will be transposed into Member States’ laws and will apply from 26^th June 2017;
7. It is being suggested that the changes brought about by the 5^th AML Directive should be transposed and applied on the same date as those for the 4^th AML Directive i.e. 26^th June 2017.

For more information or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact Dr Cherise Abela on cabela@gtgadvocates.com

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to impart legal advice and readers are asked to seek verification of statements made before acting on them.