Briefing · EU regulation
AMLR requirements: the EU’s single AML rulebook.
AMLR requirements are the obligations in the EU's Anti-Money Laundering Regulation, the directly applicable rulebook that replaces national transpositions of the AML directives. It applies from 10 July 2027 for most obliged entities, harmonises customer due diligence across the Union and puts beneficial ownership on a common 25 percent standard.
LAST UPDATED AUG 2026 · APPLIES FROM 10 JUL 2027
What the AMLR is
The AMLR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, is the centrepiece of the EU's 2024 AML package: for the first time, core AML obligations sit in a regulation that applies identically in every member state, instead of directives each country transposed its own way. Firms operating across borders get one rulebook; the excuse of national variation goes away.
Who becomes an obliged entity
The familiar list carries over: credit and financial institutions, auditors, notaries, lawyers in scope, trust and company service providers, real estate agents and dealers in high-value goods. The package also brings crypto-asset service providers fully into scope and extends coverage to sectors such as professional football, phased in later than the 2027 core date.
The CDD baseline
Customer due diligence is specified in the regulation itself: identify and verify the customer, identify the beneficial owners, understand the purpose of the relationship and monitor it on an ongoing basis, with the depth scaled to risk. An EU-wide limit on large cash payments arrives alongside, set at 10,000 euros.
Beneficial ownership at 25 percent
The AMLR sets the beneficial ownership threshold at 25 percent of shares or voting rights, with tighter treatment where the risk profile demands it, and requires the chain of ownership to be documented rather than declared. For counterparty due diligence teams this confirms the working standard: map the chain, evidence each layer, screen the people at the top.
AMLA and supervision
The package creates AMLA, the EU's new anti-money laundering authority seated in Frankfurt, which coordinates national supervisors and will directly supervise the riskiest cross-border financial groups. National regimes remain in place, but convergence pressure rises: what one supervisor tolerates, AMLA can question.
What to do before 2027
The practical preparation is unglamorous: know your beneficial ownership data, standardise CDD files so they read the same in every market, and make screening continuous rather than calendar-based. Firms serving corporate clients can start from the counterparty due diligence checklist and tighten from there.
Frequently asked questions
When do AMLR requirements start applying?
The regulation applies from 10 July 2027 for most obliged entities, with later phase-in for some newly scoped sectors. Because it is a regulation rather than a directive, there is no national transposition to wait for: the text that was published is the text that will apply.
Does the AMLR change the beneficial ownership threshold?
It confirms 25 percent of shares or voting rights as the Union-wide baseline and allows stricter treatment for higher-risk categories. The practical change is uniformity: the same threshold, the same documentation expectations and the same registry logic in every member state, which simplifies multi-country counterparty files.
Who supervises AMLR compliance?
National supervisors remain the first line, coordinated by AMLA, the new EU authority in Frankfurt, which also directly supervises a set of high-risk cross-border financial groups. For everyone else the effect is indirect but real: supervisory expectations converge upward across the Union.