January 10 2020 is the final date by which Member States have to implement the Fifth Money Laundering Directive (Directive 2018/843) (MLD5). MLD5 being the final piece of the new EU Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing (EU/AML) regime.
MLD5 was proposed by the Commission in July 2016, in the wake of terrorist attacks and the revelations of the Panama Papers scandal, and its adoption is part of the Commission's Action Plan of February 2016 to strengthen the fight against terrorist financing.
EU Commission Powers
The new EU AML/CTF regime empowers the EU Commission to (i) adopt delegated Regulations (which apply directly in Member States) identifying high risk third countries (ii) produce regulatory technical standards where uniform standards are required and (iii) for the ESA (as defined below) to produce guidelines which can be addressed to obliged entities (as defined below) and NCAs, which have to comply with or explain why they cannot comply.
Articles 1 and 5 — Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing
Articles 2 and 4 — Obliged Entities
Articles 6 to 8 — Risk Assessments
Articles 9 and 18a — High Risk Third Countries: Prescriptive Enhanced Due Diligence
Article 10 — Anonymous Accounts, Anonymous Passbooks, Anonymous Safe Deposit Boxes
Articles 10-14 — Customer Due Diligence
Article 15 to 17 — Customer Due Diligence Applying Simplified Due Diligence (SDD)
Article 18, 18a-to 24 — Enhanced Customer Due Diligence (EDD)
Article 24 — Shell Banks
Articles 25 to 27 — Third Parties
Article 28 — Groups
Article 30 — Beneficial Ownership Information Corporates and Other Legal Entities
Article 31 — Trusts and other types of Legal Arrangements
Article 31 — Central Beneficial Ownership Register for Trusts
Article 31a — Implementing Acts Technical Specifications and Procedures
Article 32 — Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) FIU Establishment and Functions
Article 32a — Centralised Automated Mechanisms for Identifying Persons Holding or Controlling Bank Accounts and Payment Accounts
Article 33 — Co-operation by Obliged Entities and their Staff with FIUs
Article 36 — Reporting obligation on NCAs and supervisory bodies
Article 38 — Protection for Individuals who Report Suspicions
Article 39 — Prohibition on Disclosure of Information
Article 40 — Record Retention
Article 45 — Group Wide Policies and Central Contact Point for eMoney Issuers and Payment Services Providers
Article 47 — Registration of Providers of Exchange Services between Virtual Currencies and Fiat Currencies
Articles 58 to 61 — Harmonising Member States Administrative Sanctions and Measures for Breach
Article 59 — Special provision for Credit Institutions and Financial Institutions
Article 60 — Publication of Decisions to impose Administrative Sanctions or Measures
WTR — Wire Transfer Regulation
Articles 5 & 6 — Transfer of funds within and to outside the Union
Article 4 — Obligations of the Payer PSP
Articles 7 and 8 — Obligations of the Payee PSP
Articles 10 to 13 — Obligations on the Intermediary PSP
Article 13 — Assessment and Reporting
Article 2 — Where the WTR does not apply
Article 16 — Record Retention
Articles 41 and 43 MLD4 and MLD5 — Data Protection