The EU AML Regulation from July 2027: what your business will be asked for

Until now, each EU country wrote its own anti-money laundering law to implement a series of directives. The result was 27 slightly different rulebooks, and a company opening accounts in two countries could be asked for different things. The Anti-Money Laundering Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, replaces most of that with one text that applies directly from 10 July 2027.

What is the EU AML Regulation?

It is the core of the EU's 2024 anti-money laundering package. It sets the customer due diligence rules, beneficial ownership rules and reporting duties for banks, payment and e-money firms, crypto-asset service providers and other obliged entities. A separate directive covers national registers and supervisors. A third regulation creates AMLA.

What changes for a company opening an account

The checks themselves will feel familiar. You will still be asked who owns and controls the company, what it does and where its money comes from. What changes is consistency:

• The same core list everywhere. A provider in Ireland and one in Lithuania work from the same text, so their document lists should converge.
• More on ownership chains. Expect questions about each layer of a holding structure until a natural person is reached. Our beneficial owner guide explains how the 25% test works.
• Regular refreshes. Providers must keep customer information up to date, so expect periodic requests for updated documents.
• Crypto in scope. Crypto-asset service providers must run the same checks, and anonymous crypto accounts are prohibited.

The €10,000 cash cap

Businesses that sell goods or services may not accept or make cash payments of €10,000 or more, in one payment or in linked ones. Member states can set a lower cap, and several already have. For most companies working across borders this changes nothing, because they rarely use cash at that size.

What AMLA does

AMLA is based in Frankfurt. From 2028 it will directly supervise a group of large financial firms that operate in several member states and carry high risk. It will also write technical standards that fill in the detail of the regulation, so some specifics will arrive between now and July 2027.

How to prepare

1. Keep an ownership chart that runs to every natural person with 25% or more, and anyone who controls the company by other means.
2. Keep formation documents, registers and proof of address current. See proof of address for a business account.
3. Write a short description of your business model, your main customers and your main payment flows. Reviewers ask for this more and more often.
4. Answer refresh requests quickly. Late answers are a common reason accounts get restricted, as our account closures article explains.

Verification on Rivet

Rivet verifies every company before opening accounts and keeps the document list in one place in the dashboard. See Bank accounts for what we ask for.