Skip to content
OPINION (COM(2021)0429 – C90338/2021 – 2021/0244(COD))

On the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive (EU) 2019/1153 of the European Parliament and of the Council, as regards access of competent authorities to centralised bank account registries through the single access point

ECON-AD-700736

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs · Rapporteur: Inese Vaidere

Official HTML ↗ PDF DOCX
✦ In shortFull textProcedure & committee votes
✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 26 Sept 2026

Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs gives its opinion on the proposed directive amending Directive (EU) 2019/1153 on access of competent authorities to centralised bank account registries through the single access point. It proposes three amendments: a new recital on Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) exchanging financial information, a revised statement of the directive's purpose, and deletion of Article 9 on exchange of information between FIUs. The committee argues that Article 9 of Directive (EU) 2019/1153 creates legal uncertainty and that Article 53 of the Anti-money Laundering Directive should be the sole legal basis for FIU information exchange.

Committee position. The committee proposes three amendments to the Commission proposal: a new recital on FIU information exchange, a revised Article 1(1) on the directive's purpose, and deletion of Article 9 on FIU information exchange.

Key points

  1. A new recital states that Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) should endeavour to exchange financial information or analysis to prevent and combat money laundering, associated predicate offences and terrorist financing.
  2. Article 1(1) of Directive (EU) 2019/1153 is replaced to state that the directive facilitates access to and use of financial and bank account information by competent authorities for serious criminal offences.
  3. The revised Article 1(1) also states that the directive facilitates access to law enforcement information by FIUs for money laundering, associated predicate offences and terrorist financing.
  4. The committee says cooperation between FIUs should be carried out under the legal basis provided by the Anti-money Laundering Directive.
  5. Article 9 of Directive (EU) 2019/1153, which allows FIUs to exchange financial information in exceptional and urgent cases, is deleted.
  6. The committee finds that Article 53 of the Anti-money Laundering Directive provides a broad legal basis for FIU information exchange on money laundering and predicate offences, including terrorism.
  7. It says Article 9 of Directive (EU) 2019/1153 introduced an inconsistency on the legal basis for FIU information exchange and should be deleted to avoid legal uncertainty.
  8. It states that Article 53 of the Anti-money Laundering Directive, and its replacing Article 24 of the Commission proposal for a sixth Anti-money Laundering Directive, should be the sole legal basis for FIU information exchange.

Who is affected

  • Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) in member states: their exchange of financial information would rest on the Anti-money Laundering Directive, not Article 9.
  • Competent authorities: they would access and use financial and bank account information for serious criminal offences under the revised purpose.