With the date of transposition of the 4th Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Directive still in discussion, the Council of the European Union has recently published its first compromise text for the 5th AML Directive.
The following are some of the proposals being outlined by these amendments:
Extending AML monitoring by competent authorities to cover providers engaged in exchange services between virtual currencies and fiat currencies and custodian wallet providers;
Implementing changes making it harder to use pre-paid cards and crypto-currencies to fund criminal activity;
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;
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;
The inclusion of specific clauses encouraging information exchange and cooperation between regulators;
Confirmation that the 4th AML Directive will be transposed into Member States’ laws and will apply from 26th June 2017;
It is being suggested that the changes brought about by the 5th AML Directive should be transposed and applied on the same date as those for the 4th AML Directive i.e. 26th 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.
Disclaimer
This article is not intended to impart legal advice and readers are asked to seek verification of statements made before acting on them.
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