The European Parliament and the Council has announced they have reached a political agreement on the EU Commission’s proposal to further strengthen EU rules on anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing.

This revision of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, aims at:

• increasing transparency on who really owns companies and trusts by establishing beneficial ownership registers;

• preventing risks associated with the use of virtual currencies for terrorist financing and limiting the use of pre-paid cards;

• improving the safeguards for financial transactions to and from high-risk third countries; and

• enhancing the access of Financial Intelligence Units to information, including centralised bank account registers.

The agreement needs to be formally endorsed by the European Parliament and the Council. Member states will then have up to 18 months to transpose these new rules in their national legislation.