Financial crime
EU Anti-Money-Laundering Package
Published Reviewed
What is EU AML?
The EU anti-money-laundering package creates a directly applicable single rulebook, a new directive and EU-level supervision for obliged entities and financial-intelligence cooperation.
| Jurisdiction | European Union |
|---|---|
| Authority | Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 and related acts |
| Current status | AMLR applies from 10 July 2027; phased package |
| Reviewed |
Why it matters operationally
The 2024 AML package is the largest reset of EU financial-crime law in a generation: a directly applicable single rulebook (AMLR), a new directive (AMLD6), and a new EU-level supervisor, AMLA, seated in Frankfurt. From July 2027 the core customer-due-diligence rules stop being twenty-seven national interpretations and become one regulation. Obliged entities that treat 2027 as a distant date will discover that risk assessments, beneficial-ownership data and policies all need rebuilding against the new rulebook — work that takes quarters, not weeks.
Are you aware?
The dates that bind
The single rulebook applies directly
Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 replaces national CDD divergence with directly applicable EU law — including an EU-wide €10,000 cash-payment cap and harmonised beneficial-ownership rules.
AMLA supervises from Frankfurt
The Anti-Money Laundering Authority is established in Frankfurt, with direct supervision of selected high-risk cross-border financial entities from 2028. Its guidance shapes expectations ahead of that date.
Beneficial ownership gets sharper
The rulebook standardises the beneficial-ownership threshold at 25% with stricter tracing through layered structures, and lowers it for certain high-risk categories. Registers your CDD relies on must be verifiably current.
Where to start
- 1
Confirm whether you are an obliged entity under the new package — the list grows, reaching crypto-asset service providers, luxury-goods traders and, later, top-tier football.
- 2
Refresh the business-wide risk assessment and map every CDD policy to the AMLR articles that will govern it from 2027.
- 3
Audit your beneficial-ownership data now: sources, verification evidence and update triggers.
Authority links
Read the official sources
The official text is the authority. This guide is only a short orientation for operational planning.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Who counts as an obliged entity?
Banks and payment firms, but far beyond: crypto-asset service providers, investment and insurance intermediaries, notaries and lawyers in defined activities, real-estate agents, traders in high-value goods, and — from 2029 — professional football clubs and agents.
What actually changes with the AMLR versus the old directives?
Directives left detail to member states; the AMLR is directly applicable, so CDD measures, beneficial-ownership thresholds and internal-policy requirements read the same in every member state — and are enforced against the same text.
What is AMLA and will it supervise us?
AMLA is the new EU authority coordinating national supervisors and financial intelligence units. It will directly supervise a selected set of high-risk cross-border financial entities from 2028; everyone else feels it through binding technical standards and converging national practice.
Side by side
Compared against
Key terms in this guide
A quick self-check
Are you ready?
- Do you know which of your entities are obliged entities under the new package — and under which supervisor?
- Is your business-wide risk assessment dated after the package entered into force, or does it still cite the old directives?
- Could you evidence the beneficial owner of your ten highest-risk customers today, with verification records?
Every question above has a written, evidence-backed answer in a well-run compliance record. If one made you pause, that pause is the gap.