European Union's Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism issues draft standards and consults on selecting 40 institutions for direct supervision from 2028

The Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA) has published draft technical standards to harmonise how money laundering and terrorist financing risks are assessed across the EU and how AMLA will identify the 40 high-risk financial institutions or groups it will directly supervise from 2028. It also opened a public consultation on how AMLA and national supervisors will cooperate during the selection process and when transferring supervisory powers to AMLA. The draft regulatory technical standards on risk assessments set out data points and criteria for national supervisors to use when assessing the entities they supervise, while a separate draft on selection applies the same inputs to AMLA’s selection of entities for direct supervision. Once approved by the European Commission, the rules would apply directly in all Member States. The consultation on draft implementing technical standards runs until 27 January 2026. AMLA signalled that these steps are the start of a broader preparation programme for its 2028 direct supervision mandate, with further work in 2026 alongside national supervisors to test the risk assessment methodology and selection process.