Fourth Money Laundering Directive and Regulation Passes First Reading of the Council of the European Union

22 April 2015

On 22 April, the Council for the European Union (“Council”) adopted its position in relation to the fourth anti-money laundering directive and the regulation on information accompanying transfer of funds.

The Council’s revisions to the rules reflect a political agreement reached between the Council and the European Parliament reached on 10 February 2015 as to how the rules on anti-money laundering should be set.

The rules are broadly in the form previously announced and the importance of this announcement is the indication that the legislation is now reaching the final stages of enactment at the European level before member states are required to implement the new rules. In short, the final version of the directive is unlikely to be markedly different from the current version.

The 20 April version of the directive and regulation can be found here and the Council’s decision can be found here.