The new European Union anti-money laundering agency is to be based in Frankfurt am Main in Germany. The location of the seat will be included in the AMLA regulation and formally adopted as part of the text.
A majority of representatives of EU states and the European Parliament voted to base AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering Authority) in Frankfurt, according to the Belgian European Council Presidency. The vote saw Germany’s bid win out against competition from eight other European capitals: Belgium (Brussels), Ireland (Dublin), Spain (Madrid), France (Paris), Italy (Rome), Latvia (Riga), Lithuania (Vilnius) and Austria (Vienna).
Regarding the location of the authority, the Council and the Parliament worked together to ensure a selection process that is transparent, fair and equitable to all candidates. The final agreement on the location of AMLA’s seat was made by the co-legislators in an informal inter-institutional meeting at political level, where the Parliament’s and the Council’s representatives voted together at the same time with 27 votes attributed to each co-legislator.
Germany’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner said Frankfurt would be a “strong, credible and sustainable base” for the new agency. He added that as an authority with a European outlook, AMLA would take efforts to fight money laundering to a new level.
The new authority is the centre piece of the reform of the EU’s anti-money laundering framework, to fight money laundering and financing for terrorism in the EU. AMLA will have direct and indirect supervisory powers over obliged entities and the power to impose sanctions and measures.
