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New counter-terrorist financing rules: the "threat has grown and evolved recently" 11.7.16

01 July 2016

The European Commission has published a proposal for new rules aimed at countering terrorist financing and money laundering that will amend the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, agreed in May 2015.

Proposed changes include obligations for "virtual currency exchange platforms" and virtual currency wallet providers to conduct due diligence checks on customers; limiting the anonymity of pre-paid cards by lowering the threshold (from 250 to 150 euros) at which sellers of cards will be obliged to undertake due diligence checks; strengthening the powers of Financial Intelligence Units; improving the ability of authorities to find out who owns bank and payment accounts; and introducing a harmonised EU approach towards "high-risk third countries".

See:

• Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing and amending Directive 2009/101/EC (COM(2016) 450 final, pdf)
• Accompanying documents: Impact assessment (SWD(2016) 223 final, pdf) and Executive summary of the impact assessment (SWD(2016) 224 final, pdf)