The European Parliament adopted, on Wednesday, a package of laws that strengthens the set of EU tools for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. The rules include a €10,000 limit for large cash payments in the EU.
The laws give the financial intelligence units (FIU) more powers to analyze and detect cases of money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as to suspend suspicious transactions, the press release of the European Parliament, quoted by news.ro, also states. .
The new laws include enhanced due diligence measures and checks on the identity of customers, whereby so-called obliged entities (eg banks, asset and crypto asset managers or real estate and virtual agents) must report suspicious activities to financial intelligence units and other authorities competent. From 2029, top professional football clubs involved in significant financial transactions with investors or sponsors, including advertising activities and player transfers, will also have to verify the identity of customers, monitor transactions and report any suspicious transactions to financial information units.
The legislation also contains increased vigilance provisions for the very wealthy (with a total wealth of at least 50,000,000 euros, excluding their main residence), an EU-wide limit of 10,000 euros for cash payments , with the exception of natural persons in a non-professional context, and measures to ensure compliance with specific financial sanctions and to avoid the evasion of sanctions.
The press has access to the name of the real beneficiary registered in the trade register
Among other things, the new laws guarantee that persons with a legitimate interest, including journalists, media professionals, civil society organizations, competent authorities and supervisory bodies, will have “immediate, unfiltered, direct and free” access to beneficiary information real held in national registers and interconnected at the EU level.
In addition to current information, the registers will also include data at least five years old. Also, starting from 2029, a new EU agency will be established that directly supervises the entities with the greatest risks.
