EU member countries have agreed on an upper limit of €10,000 on cash payments, a press release said on Thursday, in a bid to bolster rules against money laundering.
The cash limit comes into effect in three years. It will not apply to transactions between two private individuals who are not engaged in a professional transaction. The rules allow for national governments to set a lower limit.
The regulation also give financial intelligence units more powers to analyse and detect cases of money laundering and terrorist financing and to suspend suspicious transactions.
In addition to banks and casinos, retailers of luxury goods and providers of crypto assets above certain sums will also have to check their customers and report suspicious activities. Under certain conditions, professional football clubs and agents will also be obliged to monitor transactions.
The new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (Amla), is to be set up in Frankfurt to monitor the rules. It will commence operations next year and will, among other things, coordinate and support the national supervisory authorities.
Frankfurt was chosen as the location over eight other European capitals. Luxembourg had initially made a bid for Amla but then taken itself out of the race.
The European Parliament had already cleared the way for the new regulations at the end of last month. The legal texts must now be published in the Official Journal of the EU before they can come into force.
(This article first appeared in the Luxemburger Wort. Translated and edited by Kabir Agarwal.)
