55 Amendments of Lucia ĎURIŠ NICHOLSONOVÁ related to 2021/0250(COD)
Amendment 240 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 12
Recital 12
(12) The Member States remain the best placed to identify, assess, understand and decide how to mitigate risks of money laundering and terrorist financing affecting them directly. Therefore, each Member State should take the appropriate steps in an effort to properly identity, assess and understand its money laundering and terrorist financing risks, as well as risks of non-implementation and evasion of targeted financial sanctions and to define a coherent national strategy to put in place actions to mitigate those risks. Such national risk assessment should be updated regularly and should include a description of the institutional structure and broad procedures of the Member State's AML/CFT regime, as well as the allocated human and financial resources to the extent that this information is available.
Amendment 269 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 28
Recital 28
(28) Public access toregisters of beneficial ownership are important tools for advancing the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing, corruption, tax abuse and other financial crimes. Public access to beneficial ownership information can allows greater scrutiny of information by civil society, including by the press or civil society organisations, and contributes to preserving trust in the integrity of the financial system. It can contributes to combating the misuse of corporate and other legal entities and legal arrangements for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, both by helping investigations and through reputational effects, given that anyone who could enter into a business relationship is aware of the identity of the beneficial owners. It mayAs such, public information can be a deterrent against such misuse. It also facilitates the timely and efficient availability of information for obliged entities as well as authorities of third countries involved in combating such offences. Publicly available beneficial ownership data can also reduce the cost and complexity of due diligence and risk management for the private sector, thereby levelling the playing field and increasing competitiveness. The access to that information would also helps investigations on money laundering, associated predicate offences and terrorist financing.
Amendment 272 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 28 a (new)
Recital 28 a (new)
(28a) Investigative journalists and civil society play an essential role in preventing and uncovering money laundering and terrorism financing. Insofar as the disclosure and publication of beneficial ownership information has legitimate public interest purposes, Member States should ensure these categories can exercise proper scrutiny and are not hindered in their work. Charging a fee for access to information restricts the ability of civil society and the media to analyse the data contained in the central registers in order to spot inaccuracies, to identify wrong doing and to provide recommendations for improving the registers.
Amendment 275 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 30
Recital 30
(30) Confidence in financial markets from investors and the general public depends in large part on the existence of an accurate disclosure regime that provides transparency in the beneficial ownership and control structures of corporate and other legal entities as well as certain types of trusts and similar legal arrangements. Member States should therefore allow access to beneficial ownership information in a sufficiently coherent and coordinated way, by establishing confidence rules of access by the public, so that third parties are able to ascertain, throughout the Union, who are the beneficial owners of corporate and other legal entities, as well as, provided that there is a legitimate interest, of certain types of trusts and similar legal arrangements.
Amendment 276 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 31
Recital 31
(31) With regard to corporate and other legal entities, a fair balance should be sought in particular between the general public interest in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing and the data subjects’ fundamental rights. The set of data to be made available to the public should be limited, clearly and exhaustively defined, and should be of a general nature, so as to minimise the potential prejudice to the beneficial owners. At the same time, information made accessible to the public should not significantly differ from the data currently collected. In order to limit the interference with the right to respect for their private life in general and to protection of their personal data in particular, that information should relate essentially to the status of beneficial owners of corporate and other legal entities and should strictly concern the sphere of economic activity in which the beneficial owners operate. In cases where the senior managing official has been identified as the beneficial owner only ex officio and not through ownership interest held or control exercised by other means, this should be clearly visible in the registers and a suspicious transaction report should be filed.
Amendment 278 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 32
Recital 32
(32) In case of express trusts and similar legal arrangements, the information should also be accessible to any member of the general public, provided that the legitimate interest can be demonstrated. This should include situations where natural or legal persons file a request in relation to a trust or similar legal arrangement which holds or owns a controlling interest in a legal entity incorporated or created outside the Union through direct or indirect ownership, including through bearer shareholding, or through control via other means. The interpretation of the legitimate interest by the Member States should not restrict the concept of legitimate interest to cases of pending administrative or legal proceedings, and should enable to take into account the preventive work in the field of anti-money laundering and its predicate offences and counter-terrorist financing undertaken by non- governmental organisations and investigative journalists. While trusts and other legal arrangements can be used in complex corporate structures, their primary objective remains the management of individual wealth. In order to adequately balance the legitimate aim of preventing the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, which public scrutiny enhances, and the protection of fundamental rights of individuals, in particular the right to privacy and protection of personal data, it is necessary to provide for the demonstration of a legitimate interest in accessing beneficial ownership information of trusts and other legal arrangementsRegisters should share enough data with the public to allow them to participate in oversight, such as red-flagging suspicious patterns that law enforcement officials can take forward.
Amendment 279 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 33
Recital 33
(33) In order to ensure that the information available to the public allows the correct identification of the beneficial owner, a minimum set of data should be accessible to the public. Such data should allow for the unequivocal identification of the beneficial owner, whilst minimising the amount of personal data publicly accessible. In the absence of information pertaining to the name, the month and year of birth and the country of residence and nationality of the beneficial owner, it would not be possible to establish unambiguously who the natural person being the beneficial owner is. Similarly, the absence of information on the nature and extent of beneficial interest held, including information on ownership and control chain, would make it impossible to determine why that natural person should be identified as being the beneficial owner. Therefore, in order to avoid misinterpretations of the beneficial ownership information publicly available and to ensure a proportionate disclosure of personal data consistent across the Union, it is appropriate to lay down the minimum set of data that can be accessed by the public.
Amendment 281 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 35
Recital 35
(35) Moreover, with the aim of ensuring a proportionate and balanced approach and to guarantee the rights to private life and personal data protection, it should be possible for Member States tocan provide for exemptions to the disclosure of the personal information on the beneficial owner through the registers of beneficial ownership information and to access to such information, in exceptional circumstances, where that information would expose the beneficial owner to a disproportionate risk of fraud, kidnapping, blackmail, extortion, harassment, violence or intimidation. It should also be possible for Member States to require online registration in order to identify any person who requests information from the register, as well as the payment of a fee for access to the information in the registerSuch exemptions should be granted by competent authorities on a case by case basis and upon a detailed analysis of the nature of the exceptional circumstances in each case.
Amendment 283 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 35 a (new)
Recital 35 a (new)
(35a) Currently certain Member States require online registration in order to identify any person who requests information from the register, as well as the payment of a fee to obtain the information from the register. Identification of users can be a legitimate requirement but it should not lead to discrimination based on their country of residence or nationality. Furthermore, requirements linked to registration or to fees to be paid can impede access to the beneficial owner registers and may undermine their public character.
Amendment 284 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 35 b (new)
Recital 35 b (new)
(35b) In order to enhance the detection and investigation of money laundering and financial crime and enable public scrutiny, central registers of beneficial owners need to be accessible to the public in open repositories and made available for downloads in machine-readable formats. It should, however, be possible for the Member States to provide for differentiation of the type of data available to the public and to the law enforcement authorities. By virtue of article 18 TFEU, access to information contained in central registers cannot be prohibited on grounds of nationality or residency.
Amendment 285 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 36
Recital 36
(36) Directive (EU) 2018/843 achieved the interconnection of Member States’ central registers holding beneficial ownership information through the European Central Platform established by Directive (EU) 2017/1132 of the European Parliament and of the Council30 . It is essential that the European Central Platform serves as a central search service making available all information related to beneficial ownership to competent authorities, self-regulatory bodies and obliged entities. Continued involvement of Member States in the functioning of the whole system should be ensured by means of a regular dialogue between the Commission and the representatives of Member States on the issues concerning the operation of the system and on its future development. The European Parliament should be informed about the evolution of this dialogue. _________________ 30 Directive (EU) 2017/1132 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 relating to certain aspects of company law (OJ L 169, 30.6.2017, p. 46).
Amendment 292 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 41
Recital 41
(41) Through the interconnection of Member States’ centralised automated mechanisms, the national FIUs and other competent national authorities designated according to Directive 2019/1153 1a would be able to obtain swiftly cross-border information on the identity of holders of bank and payment accounts and safe deposit boxes in other Member States, which would reinforce their ability to effectively carry out financial analysis and, detect, investigate or prosecute criminal offences, as well as cooperate with their counterparts from other Member States. Direct cross-border access to information on bank and payment accounts and safe deposit boxes would enable the Financial Intelligence Units to produce financial analysis within a sufficiently short timeframe to detect potential money laundering and terrorist financing cases and guarantee a swift law enforcement action. _________________ 1a Directive (EU) 2019/1153 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 laying down rules facilitating the use of financial and other information for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of certain criminal offences, and repealing Council Decision 2000/642/JHA, OJ L 186, 11.7.2019, p. 122–137.
Amendment 293 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 42
Recital 42
(42) In order to respect the right to the protection of personal data and the right to privacy, and to limit the impact of cross- border access to the information contained in the national centralised automated mechanisms, the scope of information accessible through the bank account registers (BAR) central access point would be restricted to the minimum necessary in accordance with the principle of data minimisation in order to allow the identification of any natural or legal persons holding or controlling payment accounts and bank accounts identified by IBAN and safe-deposit boxes. Furthermore, only FIUsIUs and the other competent authorities designated according to Directive 2019/1153 should be granted immediate and unfiltered access to the central access point. Member States should ensure that the FIUs’ staff maintain high professional standards of confidentiality and data protection, that they are of high integrity and are appropriately skilled. Moreover, Member States should put in place technical and organisational measures guaranteeing the security of the data to high technological standards.
Amendment 299 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 44 a (new)
Recital 44 a (new)
(44a) Certain goods registered under national law can be attractive commodities for criminals to launder the proceeds of their illicit activities. Member States should provide for systems to aggregate information on ownership of those goods, for example watercraft and aircraft. Member States should also consider aggregating, through registers or other systems, information on ownership of certain goods of high value, particularly insured goods. Proper and timely identification of natural persons who are beneficial owners of those goods by FIUs and other competent authorities is important both for detecting money laundering schemes and for freezing assets. It is therefore important for Member States to provide FIUs and competent authorities with access to information which allows the identification in a timely manner of natural or beneficial ownership of certain goods and to information relevant for the identification of the risk and suspicion of transactions. AMLA shall develop draft regulatory standards by [1year after the date of entry into force of this Directive] for a specific set of assets, which shall include at a minimum, personal vehicles, aircrafts, watercrafts, jewellery and certain types of artwork.
Amendment 312 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 50 a (new)
Recital 50 a (new)
(50a) For FIUs to carry out their tasks effectively, given the cross-border nature of many transactions, they must cooperate with each other and with competent authorities, including law enforcement, but also tax and customs authorities, Europol and the European Anti-Fraud Office, in a more meaningful and efficient manner. Cooperation with FIUs of third countries is also essential in order to fight money laundering and terrorist financing at a global level and to comply with international AML/FT standards. Member States shall enable, through their legislation, such cooperation and empower their FIUs to enter into effective cooperation arrangements.
Amendment 317 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 54
Recital 54
(54) The movement of illicit money traverses borders and may affect different Member States. The cross-border cases, involving multiple jurisdictions, are becoming more and more frequent and increasingly significant, also due to the activities carried out by obliged entities on a cross-border basis. In order to deal effectively with cases that concern several Member States, FIUs should be able to go beyond the simple exchange of information for the detection and analysis of suspicious transactions and activities and share the analytical activity itself. FIUs have reported certain important issues which limit or condition the capacity of FIUs to engage in joint analysis. Carrying out joint analysis of suspicious transactions and activities will enable FIUs to exploit potential synergies, to use information from different national and EU sources, to obtain a full picture of the anomalous activities and to enrich the analysis. FIUs should be able to conduct joint analyses of suspicious transactions and activities and to set up and participate in joint analysis teams for specific purposes and limited period with the assistance of AMLA. The participation of third parties may be instrumental for the successful outcome of joint analyses. Therefore, FIUs may invite third parties to take part in the joint analysis where such participation would fall within the respective mandates of those third parties.
Amendment 331 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 75
Recital 75
(75) The new fully-integrated and coherent anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing policy at Union level, with designated roles for both Union and national competent authorities and with a view to ensure their smooth and constant cooperation. In that regard, cooperation between all national and Union AML/CFT authorities is of the utmost importance and should be clarified and enhanced. Internally, it remains the duty of Member States to provide for the necessary rules to ensure that policy makers, the FIUs, supervisors, including AMLA, and other competent authorities involved in AML/CFT, as well as tax authorities and law enforcement authorities when acting within the scope of this Directive, have effective mechanisms to enable them to cooperate and coordinate, including with other EU bodies and through a restrictive approach to the refusal by competent authorities to cooperate and exchange information at the request of another competent authority.
Amendment 336 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 84
Recital 84
(84) The effectiveness of the Union AML/CFT framework relies on the cooperation between a wide array of competent authorities. To facilitate such cooperation, AMLA should be entrusted to develop guidelines in coordination with the ECB, the European Supervisory Authorities, Europol, Eurojust, and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office on cooperation between all competent authorities at national and EU level. Such guidelines should also describe how authorities competent for the supervision or oversight of obliged entities under other Union acts should take into account money laundering and terrorist financing concerns in the performance of their duties.
Amendment 400 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 7 – paragraph 3
Article 7 – paragraph 3
3. The Commission shall make recommendations to Member States on the measures suitable for addressing the identified risks. Member States shall endeavour to follow these recommendations. In the event that Member States decide not to apply any of the recommendations in their national AML/CFT regimes, they shall notify the Commission thereof and provide a justification stating legitimate reasons for such a decision.
Amendment 403 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 7 – paragraph 4
Article 7 – paragraph 4
4. By [3 years after the date of transposition of this Directive], AMLA, in cooperation with other EU bodies involved in the AML/CFT framework such as Europol, shall issue an opinion addressed to the Commission on the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing affecting the Union. Thereafter, AMLA shall issue an opinion every two years.
Amendment 420 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 4 – point b a (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 4 – point b a (new)
Amendment 426 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 4 – point c a (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 4 – point c a (new)
(ca) identify patterns of money laundering/terrorism financing and assess trends for the associated risks at national level;
Amendment 447 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – paragraph 2 – point b
Article 9 – paragraph 2 – point b
(b) data measuring the reporting, investigation and judicial phases of the national AML/CFT regime, including the number of suspicious transaction reports made to the FIU and the value of such transactions, the follow-up given to those reports, the information on cross- border physical transfers of cash submitted to the FIU in accordance with Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1672 together with the follow-up given to the information submitted and, on an annual basis, the number of cases investigated, the number of persons prosecuted, the number of persons convicted for money laundering or terrorist financing offences, the types of predicate offences identified in accordance with Article 2 of Directive (EU) 2018/1673 of the European Parliament and of the Council45 where such information is available, and the value in euro of property that has been frozen, seized or confiscated; _________________ 45 Directive (EU) 2018/1673 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on combating money laundering by criminal law (OJ L 284, 12.11.2018, p. 22).
Amendment 452 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – paragraph 2 – point g a (new)
Article 9 – paragraph 2 – point g a (new)
(ga) the number of discrepancies reported to the central register referred to in Article 10, including measures or sanctions imposed by the entity in charge of the central register, the number of on- site and off-site inspections, types of recurrent discrepancies and patterns identified in the verification process by entities in charge of the central register;
Amendment 457 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – paragraph 3 – introductory part
Article 9 – paragraph 3 – introductory part
3. Member States shall ensure that the statistics referred to in paragraph 2 are collected and transmitted to the Commission on an annual basis. The statistics referred to in paragraph 2, points (a), (c), (d) and (f), shall also be transmitted to AMLA.
Amendment 461 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – paragraph 6
Article 9 – paragraph 6
6. The Commission shall publish a biennial report summarising and explaining the statistics referred to in paragraph 2, which shall be made available on its website and shall be submitted to the European Parliament and to the Council.
Amendment 467 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 10 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
1. Member States shall ensure that beneficial ownership information referred to in Article 44 of Regulation [please insert reference – proposal for Anti-Money Laundering Regulation - COM/2021/420 final] and information on nominee arrangements referred to in Article 47 of that Regulation is held in a central register in the Member State where the legal entity is incorporated or where the trustee or person holding an equivalent position in a similar legal arrangement is established or resides. Such requirement shall not apply to companies listed on a regulated market that are subject to disclosure requirements equivalent to the requirements laid down in this Directive or subject to equivalent international standards ensuring disclosure of natural persons in control.
Amendment 476 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 3 – introductory part
Article 10 – paragraph 3 – introductory part
3. WIn addition to the STRs filed on the grounds laid out in Articles 17 and 45 of Regulation [please insert reference – proposal for Anti-Money Laundering Regulation - COM/2021/420] , where no person is identified as beneficial owner pursuant to Article 45(2) and (3) of Regulation [please insert reference – proposal for Anti-Money Laundering Regulation - COM/2021/420 final], the central register shall include:
Amendment 483 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 3 – point a
Article 10 – paragraph 3 – point a
(a) a statement accompanied by a justification and supporting documents, that there is no beneficial owner or that the beneficial owner(s) could not be identified and verified;
Amendment 487 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 4
Article 10 – paragraph 4
4. The Commission is empowered to adopt, by means of implementing acts, the format for the submission of beneficial ownership information referred to in Article 44 of Regulation [please insert reference – proposal for Anti-Money Laundering Regulation] to the central register. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 54(2).
Amendment 501 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 5 – point b
Article 10 – paragraph 5 – point b
(b) competent authorities, if appropriate and to the extent that this requirement does not interfere unnecessarily with their functions, shall report to the entity in charge of the central registers any discrepancies they find between beneficial ownership information available in the central registers and the beneficial ownership information available to them.
Amendment 521 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 8
Article 10 – paragraph 8
8. In the case of corporate and other legal entities and, where the trustee is an obliged entity as listed in Article 3, point 3 of Regulation[please insert reference - proposal for Anti-Money Laundering Regulation -COM/2021/420 final], Member States shall ensure that the entity in charge of the central beneficial ownership register is empowered to request documents, to carry out checks, including on-site investigations, at the premises or registered office of the legal entity, at the premises of relevant obliged entities as listed in Article 3 of Regulation[please insert reference - proposal for Anti-Money Laundering Regulation -COM/2021/420 final], in accordance with national law, or at the premises of the legal entities’ representatives in the Union in order to establish the current beneficial ownership of the entity and to verify that the information submitted to the central register is accurate, adequate and up-to- date. The right of the central register to verify such information shall not be restricted, obstructed or precluded in any manner and the central register shall be empowered to request information from other entities, including in other Member States and third countries, in particular through the establishment of cooperation agreements.
Amendment 533 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 9
Article 10 – paragraph 9
9. Member States shall ensure that the entity in charge of the central register is empowered to impose effective, proportionate and dissuasive measures or sanctions for failures to provide the register with accurate, adequate and up-to-date information about their beneficial ownership. Sanctions shall include monetary penalties and restrictions in the access to certain professions and in the exercise of certain functions within a legal entity or arrangement, restrictions in the exercise of ownership rights of a legal entity or in the ability to receive dividends, suspending or discontinuing activities. In the event of repeated failures to ensure that the register contains up-to-date, accurate and adequate information, sanctions shall be increased to ensure compliance. By [1 year after entry into force of this Directive], AMLA shall adopt draft regulatory technical standards regarding indicators to classify the level of gravity of breach and criteria for such repeated failures and submit them to the Commission for adoption. The Commission is empowered to supplement this Directive by adopting the regulatory standards referred to in the first subparagraph in accordance with Articles 38 to 41 of Regulation [please insert reference - proposal for establishment of an Anti-Money Laundering Authority - COM/2021/421 final].
Amendment 548 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 11 – paragraph 1
Article 11 – paragraph 1
1. Member States shall ensure that competent authorities, including procurement agencies, have timely, unrestricted and free access to the information held in the interconnected central registers referred to in Article 10, without alerting the entity or arrangement concerned.
Amendment 574 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 12 – paragraph 2
Article 12 – paragraph 2
2. Member States may choose toshall make beneficial ownership information held in their central registers available to the public on the condition of authentication using electronic identification means and relevant trust services as set out in Regulation (EU) 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council46 and the payment of a fee, which shall not exceed the administrative costs of making the information available, including costs of maintenance and devels referred to in paragraph 1 accessible to the public, free of charge, in opments of the register. _________________ 46 Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (OJ L 257, 28.8.2014, p. 73) repositories, available for bulk down loads in machine-readable formats.
Amendment 579 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 12 – paragraph 2 a (new)
Article 12 – paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Users from other Member States should not be prevented from accessing the central registers.
Amendment 583 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 13 a (new)
Article 13 a (new)
Article 13a Evaluation of the functioning of beneficial owners registers By [3 years after the entry into force of this Directive], the Commission, in cooperation with AMLA, will conduct an assessment of the functioning of the beneficial owners registers established in Member States, as well as of the interconnected system for searches through the European Central Platform. On the basis of this assessment, the Commission shall present to the Council and the European Parliament a report with recommendations for improvement of the central registers established at national level, as well as for the interconnexion through the European Central Platform. The report should also address the opportunity of establishing a central register at EU level.
Amendment 612 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 15 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 15 – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) the common criteria according to which beneficial ownership information is available through the system of interconnection of registers, depending on the level of access granted by Member States;
Amendment 615 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 15 – paragraph 1 – point e
Article 15 – paragraph 1 – point e
(e) the technical modalities to implement the different types of access to information on beneficial ownership in accordance with Articles 11 and 12 of this Directive, including the authentication of users through the use of electronic identification means and relevant trust services as set out in Regulation (EU) 910/2014. These modalities should ensure that users from other Member States are not prevented from accessing the information;
Amendment 619 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 15 – paragraph 1 – point f
Article 15 – paragraph 1 – point f
Amendment 629 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 16 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 16 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
1. Member States shall provide FIUs and other competent authorities with access to informationunrestricted and free access to information via a single access point in each Member State which allows the identification in a timely manner of any natural or legal person owning real estate, including through registers or electronic data retrieval systems where such registers or systems are available. Competent authorities shall also have access to information allowing the identification and analysis of transactions involving real estate, including their economic value and details of the natural or legal persons involved in those transactions including, where available, whether the natural or legal person owns, sells or acquires real estate on behalf of a legal arrangement.
Amendment 644 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 16 a (new)
Article 16 a (new)
Article 16a Access to beneficial ownership information of certain assets 1. Member States shall provide competent authorities with real-time access to information to the beneficial owners of legal persons or arrangements owning high-value assets, in particular: (a) Tangible assets such as watercrafts, aircrafts, personal vehicles, works of art, jewellery. (b) Intangible assets such as financial products and crypto assets. The Commission shall adopt by [2 years after the entry into force of this Directive] an implementing act laying down a list of specific high-value assets which this Directive applies The list of high-value assets shall be reviewed every three years thereafter. 2. Member States shall ensure that information referred to in paragraph 1 is available to competent authorities, either through registers or electronic data retrieval systems. FIUs shall be granted direct and immediate access to the information referred to in this first subparagraph.
Amendment 673 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 17 – paragraph 7 a (new)
Article 17 – paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. AMLA shall coordinate the organisation of periodical peer reviews of FIUs for the purposes of assessing whether the requirements set out in this article have been fulfilled.
Amendment 722 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 19 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 19 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
1. Member States shall ensure that FIUs respond in a timely manner, and in any case no later than seven days, to reasoned requests for information by other competent authorities in their respective Member State or Union authorities competent for investigating or prosecuting criminal activities when such requests for information are motivated by concerns relating to money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing or when this information is necessary for the competent authority to perform its tasks under this Directive. The decision on conducting the dissemination of information shall remain with the FIU.
Amendment 746 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 20 – paragraph 3
Article 20 – paragraph 3
3. Member States shall provide for the effective possibility for the person whose bank or payment account is affected to challenge the suspension before a court in accordance with procedures provided for in national law. Member States shall also provide for the procedures for notification of the FIU's decision to the concerned person.
Amendment 752 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 20 – paragraph 4
Article 20 – paragraph 4
4. FIUs shall be empowered to impose the suspensions referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, directly or indirectly, at the request of an FIU from another Member State under the conditions specified in the national law of the FIU receiving the request. The possibility provided in point 3 of this article should apply also in this case.
Amendment 773 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 22 – paragraph 1
Article 22 – paragraph 1
Member States shall ensure that FIUs cooperate with each other and with their counterparts in third countries to the greatest extent possible and in a timely manner, regardless of their organisational status. To this end, they should provide for effective arrangements for cross-border and international cooperation.
Amendment 785 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 23 – paragraph 3 a (new)
Article 23 – paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Following a peer review in accordance with Article 17 paragraph 7a (new), AMLA may suspend access to FIU.net for a specific FIU where the report of the peer review concludes that requirements relating to the independence, integrity, professionalism, confidentiality or security of the FIU, as set out in Article17, have not been fulfilled. The decision of suspension by AMLA shall include the follow-up measures that the FIU must comply with, in order for the suspension to be lifted. AMLA shall review the actions taken by the FIU concerned no later than 3 months after issuing the decision.
Amendment 826 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 31 – paragraph 6 a (new)
Article 31 – paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Member States shall ensure that Supervisors, self-regulatory bodies, and authorities overseeing self-regulatory bodies as referred to in Article 38, produce a detailed annual activity report and that a summary of that report is made publicly available. The summary of the report referred to in the first subparagraph shall present: (a) the tasks of the supervisors; (b) an overview of its supervisory activities; (c)the number of on-site and off-site supervisory actions including patterns identified after inspections; (d) the number of breaches identified on the basis of supervisory actions and sanctions or administrative measures applied by supervisory authorities and self-regulatory bodies pursuant to Section 4 of Chapter IV. The annual activity report referred to in the first subparagraph shall be transmitted to the designated authority or mechanism referred to in Article 8(2) and to AMLA. The designated authority shall provide feedback and propose possible improvements, and shall be able to make recommendations to change the allocation of supervisory responsibilities and the arrangements for carrying out supervisory tasks.
Amendment 881 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 38 – paragraph 3 – point b
Article 38 – paragraph 3 – point b
(b) issue instructions to a self- regulatory body for the purpose of remedying a failure to perform its functions under Article 29(1) or to comply with the requirements of paragraph 5 and 6 of that Article, or to prevent any such failures. When issuing such instructions, the authority shall consider any relevant guidance it provided or that has been provided by AMLA.
Amendment 894 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 40 – paragraph 1 – point d
Article 40 – paragraph 1 – point d
(d) Section 1 of Chapter II (internal controlpolicies, controls and procedures of obliges entities).
Amendment 932 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 43 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 43 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
1. Member States shall ensure that supervisory authorities, FIUs, as well as, where applicable, self-regulatory bodies, establish effective and reliable mechanisms to encourage the reporting of potential and actual breaches of this Directive and Regulation [please insert reference – proposal for Anti-Money Laundering Regulation - COM/2021/420 final].
Amendment 938 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 43 – paragraph 2 – point b
Article 43 – paragraph 2 – point b
(b) appropriate protection for employees or persons in a comparable position, of obliged entities who report breaches committed within the obliged entity, as well as for any individual who has independent knowledge or who after independent evaluation of publicly- available information provides information to the competent authorities;
Amendment 946 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 45 – paragraph 1
Article 45 – paragraph 1
1. Member States shall ensure that policy makers, the FIUs, supervisors, including AMLA, Europol and other competent authorities, as well as tax authorities have effective mechanisms to enable them to cooperate and coordinate domestically and at EU level concerning the development and implementation of policies and activities to combat money laundering and terrorist financing and to prevent the non- implementation and evasion of proliferation financing-related targeted financial sanctions, including with a view to fulfilling their obligations under Article 8.
Amendment 963 #
FIU ands, supervisory authorities, as well any other national authority competent in the field of AML/FT shall cooperate with AMLA and shall provide it with all the information necessary to allow it to carry out its duties under this Directive, under Regulation [please insert reference – proposal for Anti-Money Laundering Regulation - COM/2021/420 final] and under Regulation [please insert reference – proposal for establishment of an Anti- Money Laundering Authority - COM/2021/421 final].