EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA)

The Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism was established by Regulation (EU) 2024/1620, as part of a legislative package that also includes a directly applicable regulation setting obliged entities' duties and a sixth directive. Based in Frankfurt, it began operating in 2025 and is ramping up gradually. Its mission is twofold: to coordinate and harmonize the work of national supervisors, which remain competent for the great majority of entities, and to directly supervise, from 2028, some forty financial institutions among those most exposed to money laundering risk and active in several member states. For insurance, life insurers and life insurance intermediaries are obliged entities: they must identify their customers and beneficial owners, monitor atypical transactions, notably quick surrenders and large premiums, and report suspicions. The package reduces national room for maneuver, replacing rules transposed differently with a single text, and strengthens expectations on beneficial ownership registers, which European case law had made less accessible.