AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering Authority)

The Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA) is the EU agency created by Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 to bring anti-money laundering (AML) supervision across the Union under common oversight. AMLA's own timeline sets out its milestones: legal existence since 26 June 2024, operations from summer 2025 at its seat in Frankfurt am Main, the selection of about 40 obliged entities for direct supervision during 2027, and the start of direct supervision during 2028.

AMLA has three main jobs:

• Direct supervision of selected credit and financial institutions that operate across borders and present a high risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.
• Indirect oversight: coordinating and reviewing the national supervisors that remain responsible for every other obliged entity, including the non-financial sector, and supporting cooperation between national financial intelligence units.
• Rule-writing: drafting regulatory and implementing technical standards and issuing guidelines that complete the single rulebook.

AMLA is one part of the EU's 2024 AML package. The obligations that firms must meet move into a directly applicable regulation, Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 (the AMLR), which applies from 10 July 2027 and replaces most of the rules that national laws currently transpose from the AML directives.

That gives compliance teams two clocks to track: the new rulebook from July 2027 for every obliged entity, and possible selection for direct AMLA supervision, which starts during 2028 for the first group. Crypto-asset service providers authorized under MiCA face both, and our MiCA compliance checklist puts the dates side by side.

This entry is general information, not legal advice.