Finance ministers of EU Member States have agreed a position on the European Commission's (EC’s) proposed Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (6AMLD) and an associated regulation imposing anti-money laundering (AML) controls directly on Member States.

The new rules introduce an EU-wide limit of EUR10,000 on all cash payments. Moreover, the Council of the European Union (the EU Council) wants all crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) to be required to conduct due-diligence on their customers when carrying out transactions as small as EUR1,000. The EU Council also wants to see specific enhanced due-diligence measures for cross-border correspondent relationships for CASPs. The AML regime will also be extended to cover third-party financing intermediaries and persons trading in precious metals, precious stones and cultural goods.

The EU Council statement also takes account of the recent Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling on public access to national beneficial ownership registers, which stated that registers should not be open to the public without restriction...