A Brief Appreciation Of The 6th AML Directive

The EU's unwavering commitment to comprehensively combat threats posed by Money Laundering (and funding of Terrorism) across the Union has been further strengthened by the 6th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (which entered into force on the 3rd of December 2020).

It is envisaged that by the 3rd of June 2021, all obliged entities, jurisdictions, and authorities within the EU will be fully aligned to the requirements of the Directive accordingly. In fact, as acknowledged in paragraph 22, the objective of this Directive is namely 'to subject money laundering in all Member States to effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal penalties' - an act that cannot be sufficiently achieved by Member States alone but (by reason of the scale and effects of this Directive) can be better achieved at Union level.