The European Union’s recently approved Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) will be based in Frankfurt, Germany, and begin operations in 2025.
The Council of the European Union announced the development Thursday. It said AMLA will be comprised of more than 400 staff members.
The creation of AMLA was proposed as part of a July 2021 package of rules presented by the European Commission to strengthen the efficiency of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) efforts in the region. The agency received preliminary approval in December, paving its way toward final adoption.
In addition to supervisory powers, AMLA will be granted the ability to impose monetary penalties on the entities it will oversee. It will initially select up to 40 credit and financial institutions it deems represent high AML/CFT risks across multiple member states for supervision.
Institutions not selected by AMLA would remain supervised at the national level, though the new agency is expected to play a supporting role in those efforts.
The selection of Germany to play host to AMLA comes as the country plans the establishment of its own new AML agency this year.
Other countries that bid to host AMLA included Belgium, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, and Austria.
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