The EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority is expected to be fully operational by 2028

A new European Union agency focused on combating dirty money is expected to be fully operational in 2028.

This was announced on Wednesday by the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), which is being established in Frankfurt as the first pan-European body to supervise illegal financial flows. Its aim is to respond to new risks such as cryptocurrencies and "new payment channels."

From 2028, the AMLA will directly supervise 40 financial institutions in the EU that are considered to be the most risky. The agency plans to finalize its risk assessment methodology in 2026, with the selection of supervised entities to follow a year later. The AMLA also announced that it has already met its target for 2025, having recruited 120 of the planned 432 employees.

The EU proposed the creation of the agency in 2021 after major money laundering scandals exposed weaknesses in national control systems. AMLA Chair Bruna Szego said this is a transition from fragmented national approaches to a unified, risk-oriented system.

The agency warns that the volume of cryptocurrencies used for money laundering is growing rapidly, although most terrorist financing is still carried out using traditional money.

(reuters, lud)