Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA)

What it is

AMLA — established by Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 — is the EU's new dedicated AML/CFT supervisor. It is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, becomes operational in 2025–2026, and starts direct supervision of selected high-risk obliged entities from 2028.

What AMLA does

• Direct supervision of approximately 40 high-risk cross-border financial entities, picked on a risk-based selection.
• Indirect supervision and coordination of national AML supervisors across the EU, to drive consistency.
• Coordination of the FIU network — national Financial Intelligence Units that receive STRs and SARs.
• Convergence of supervisory practice — common methodology, peer review, joint investigations.

Why it was created

The disclosed AML failures of the 2010s — Danske Bank Estonia, ING, ABN AMRO, the systemic exposure revealed by FinCEN Files — all had a common feature: cross-border activity that no single national supervisor was able or empowered to see in full. AMLA is the EU's institutional answer.