Changes to Member State Procedures: Fourth AML Directive
Question
Release of the EU's Fourth AML Directive resulted in what change to member state's procedures? (Choose two.)
Answers
Explanations
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A. B. C. D. E.BE
The Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD IV) was adopted by the European Union in May 2015, and it had to be transposed into national law by member states by June 2017. The directive aimed to improve the EU's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) framework and bring it in line with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations.
The changes resulting from AMLD IV that affected member state's procedures are:
B. Money laundering and terrorist financing were defined as separate crimes, expanding the directive's measures: Before AMLD IV, the EU had a single offence of money laundering that covered both proceeds from criminal activities and terrorism financing. AMLD IV separated the two crimes, allowing for more targeted measures against terrorism financing.
E. All financial institutions were required to identify and verify the beneficial owner of legal entities: AMLD IV strengthened the beneficial ownership transparency requirements, and all EU member states were required to establish registers of beneficial owners of corporate and other legal entities. The beneficial ownership information should be available to competent authorities and obliged entities to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.
The other options presented in the question are not accurate changes resulting from AMLD IV:
A. Knowledge of criminal conduct could be inferred from objective factual circumstances: This is a principle that has been recognized for a long time in EU law and does not result from AMLD IV.
C. The threshold for reporting suspicious transactions decreased from 15,000 EUR to 10,000 EUR: This is not a change resulting from AMLD IV. The threshold for reporting suspicious transactions is set at the national level and varies among EU member states.
D. The scope of obliged entities was enlarged from casinos to all providers of gambling services: This is not a change resulting from AMLD IV. The third AML directive already included casinos and other gambling services, and AMLD IV did not change this scope.
