(AFP) – The European Parliament and EU member states agreed on Thursday to limit cash payments within the European Union to €10,000, as part of legislation to combat money laundering.
Some countries, such as France, already have stricter rules than the new European provisions on cash payments.
But in other countries, such as Austria and Germany, cash payments have until now been unrestricted.
The provision is part of a text also designed to better combat the financing of terrorism, concluded after two and a half years of negotiations and due to come into force this year.
The aim is to harmonise the existing, highly disparate regulations in the 27 EU countries in order to detect and limit dubious transactions.
This agreement “will ensure that fraudsters, organised crime and terrorists will no longer be able to legitimise their profits through the financial system”, said Belgian Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem, whose country holds the rotating six-month presidency of the EU Council.
The new legislation also harmonises and tightens the rules against money laundering and terrorist financing imposed on banks, estate agents and casinos. These entities will have to be able to identify their customers or the owners of assets behind opaque financial arrangements.
The application of these rules will be extended to the crypto-asset sector to ensure traceability there too.
They will also apply to the trade in luxury goods such as precious metals, jewellery and watches, as well as very high-end cars, private jets and yachts.
Finally, professional football clubs and their agents will also be subject to the tougher regulations, but only after a transitional period of five years following the entry into force of the text, i.e. from 2029.
The new legislation will also strengthen the powers of financial intelligence units.
In December, the European Parliament and the Member States approved the creation of a European Union agency to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Several countries, including France and Germany, are seeking to host the agency’s headquarters, although Luxembourg has dropped out of the race.
The new agency, known as AMLA (Anti-money laundering authority), will be responsible for supervising and coordinating national authorities to better detect and combat suspicious cross-border activities.
This package of measures was proposed by the European Commission in July 2021. On Thursday, Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness welcomed “an important step forward in the fight against dirty money in the EU”.
(Translation and additional reporting by John Monaghan)
