Article 2 AMLR – Definitions
1. For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:
| (1) | ‘money laundering’ means the conduct set out in Article 3, paragraphs 1 and 5, of Directive (EU) 2018/1673 including aiding and abetting, inciting and attempting to commit that conduct, whether the activities which generated the property to be laundered were carried out on the territory of a Member State or on that of a third country; knowledge, intent or purpose required as an element of that conduct may be inferred from objective factual circumstances; |
| (2) | ‘terrorist financing’ means the conduct set out in Article 11 of Directive (EU) 2017/541 including aiding and abetting, inciting and attempting to commit that conduct, whether carried out on the territory of a Member State or on that of a third country; knowledge, intent or purpose required as an element of that conduct may be inferred from objective factual circumstances; |
| (3) | ‘criminal activity’ means criminal activity as defined in Article 2, point (1), of Directive (EU) 2018/1673, as well as fraud affecting the Union’s financial interests as defined in Article 3(2) of Directive (EU) 2017/1371, passive and active corruption as defined in Article 4 (2) and misappropriation as defined in Article 4(3), second subparagraph, of that Directive; |
| (4) | ‘funds’ or ‘property’ means property as defined in Article 2, point (2), of Directive (EU) 2018/1673; |
| (5) | ‘credit institution’ means:(a)a credit institution as defined in Article 4(1), point (1), of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;(b)a branch of a credit institution, as defined in Article 4(1), point (17), of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, when located in the Union, whether its head office is located in a Member State or in a third country; |
| (6) | ‘financial institution’ means:(a)an undertaking other than a credit institution or an investment firm, which carries out one or more of the activities listed in points (2) to (12), (14) and (15) of Annex I to Directive 2013/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (32), including the activities of currency exchange offices (bureaux de change), but excluding the activities referred to in point (8) of Annex I to Directive (EU) 2015/2366, or an undertaking the principal activity of which is to acquire holdings, including a financial holding company, a mixed financial holding company and a financial mixed activity holding company;(b)an insurance undertaking as defined in Article 13, point (1), of Directive 2009/138/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (33), insofar as it carries out life or other investment-related assurance activities covered by that Directive, including insurance holding companies and mixed-activity insurance holding companies as defined, respectively, in Article 212(1), points (f) and (g), of Directive 2009/138/EC;(c)an insurance intermediary as defined in Article 2(1), point (3), of Directive (EU) 2016/97 where it acts with respect to life insurance and other investment-related insurance services, with the exception of an insurance intermediary that does not collect premiums or amounts intended for the customer and which acts under the responsibility of one or more insurance undertakings or intermediaries for the products which concern them respectively;(d)an investment firm as defined in Article 4(1), point (1), of Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (34);(e)a collective investment undertaking, in particular:(i)an undertaking for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) as defined in Article 1(2) of Directive 2009/65/EC and its management company as defined in Article 2(1), point (b), of that Directive or an investment company authorised in accordance with that Directive and which has not designated a management company, that makes available for purchase units of UCITS in the Union;(ii)an alternative investment fund as defined in Article 4(1), point (a), of Directive 2011/61/EU and its alternative investment fund manager as defined in Article 4(1), point (b), of that Directive that fall within the scope set out in Article 2 of that Directive;(f)a central securities depository as defined in Article 2(1), point (1), of Regulation (EU) No 909/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council (35);(g)a creditor as defined in Article 4, point (2), of Directive 2014/17/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (36) and in Article 3, point (b), of Directive 2008/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (37);(h)a credit intermediary as defined in Article 4, point (5), of Directive 2014/17/EU and in Article 3, point (f), of Directive 2008/48/EC, when holding the funds as defined in Article 4, point (25), of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 in connection with the credit agreement, with the exception of the credit intermediary carrying out activities under the responsibility of one or more creditors or credit intermediaries;(i)a crypto-asset service provider;(j)a branch of a financial institution referred to in points (a) to (i), when located in the Union, whether its head office is located in a Member State or in a third country; |
| (7) | ‘crypto-asset’ means a crypto-asset as defined in Article 3(1), point (5), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 except when falling under the categories listed in Article 2(4) of that Regulation; |
| (8) | ‘crypto-asset services’ means crypto-asset services as defined in Article 3(1), point (16), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, with the exception of providing advice on crypto-assets as referred to in Article 3(1), point (16)(h), of that Regulation; |
| (9) | ‘crypto-asset service provider’ means a crypto-asset service provider as defined in Article 3(1), point (15), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 where performing one or more crypto-asset services; |
| (10) | ‘financial mixed activity holding company’ means an undertaking, other than a financial holding company or a mixed financial holding company, which is not the subsidiary of another undertaking, the subsidiaries of which include at least one credit institution or financial institution; |
| (11) | ‘trust or company service provider’ means any natural or legal person that, by way of its business, provides any of the following services to third parties:(a)the formation of companies or other legal persons;(b)acting as, or arranging for another person to act as, a director or secretary of a company, a partner of a partnership, or a similar position in relation to other legal persons;(c)providing a registered office, business address, correspondence address or administrative address, as well as other related services for a company, a partnership or any other legal person or legal arrangement;(d)acting as, or arranging for another person to act as, a trustee of an express trust or performing an equivalent function for a similar legal arrangement;(e)acting as, or arranging for another person to act as, a nominee shareholder for another person; |
| (12) | ‘gambling service’ means a service which involves wagering a stake with monetary value in games of chance, including those with an element of skill, such as lotteries, casino games, poker games and betting transactions that are provided at a physical location, or by any means at a distance, by electronic means or any other technology for facilitating communication, and at the individual request of a recipient of services; |
| (13) | ‘non-financial mixed activity holding company’ means an undertaking, other than a financial holding company or a mixed financial holding company, which is not the subsidiary of another undertaking, the subsidiaries of which include at least one obliged entity as referred to in Article 3, point (3); |
| (14) | ‘self-hosted address’ means a self-hosted address as defined in Article 3, point (20), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1113; |
| (15) | ‘crowdfunding service provider’ means a crowdfunding service provider as defined in Article 2(1), point (e), of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503; |
| (16) | ‘crowdfunding intermediary’ means an undertaking other than a crowdfunding service provider the business of which is to match or facilitate the matching, through an internet-based information system open to the public or to a limited number of funders, of:(a)project owners, which are any natural or legal person seeking funding for projects, consisting of one or a set of predefined operations aiming at a particular objective, including fundraising for a particular cause or event irrespective of whether those projects are proposed to the public or to a limited number of funders; and(b)funders, which are any natural or legal person contributing to the funding of projects, through loans, with or without interest, or donations, including where such donations entitle the donor to a non-material benefit; |
| (17) | ‘electronic money’ means electronic money as defined in Article 2, point (2), of Directive 2009/110/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (38), but excluding monetary value as referred to in Article 1(4) and (5) of that Directive; |
| (18) | ‘establishment’ means the actual pursuit by an obliged entity of an economic activity covered by Article 3 in a Member State or third country other than the country where its head office is located for an indefinite period and through a stable infrastructure, including:(a)a branch or subsidiary;(b)in the case of credit institutions and financial institutions, an infrastructure qualifying as an establishment under prudential regulation; |
| (19) | ‘business relationship’ means a business, professional or commercial relationship connected with the professional activities of an obliged entity, which is set up between an obliged entity and a customer, including in the absence of a written contract and which is expected to have, at the time when the contact is established, or which subsequently acquires, an element of repetition or duration; |
| (20) | ‘linked transactions’ means two or more transactions with either identical or similar origin, destination and purpose, or other relevant characteristics, over a specific period; |
| (21) | ‘third country’ means any jurisdiction, independent state or autonomous territory that is not part of the Union and that has its own AML/CFT legislation or enforcement regime; |
| (22) | ‘correspondent relationship’ means:(a)the provision of banking services by one credit institution as the correspondent to another credit institution as the respondent, including providing a current or other liability account and related services, such as cash management, international transfers of funds as defined in Article 4, point (25), of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, cheque clearing, payable-through accounts and foreign exchange services;(b)the relationships between and among credit institutions and financial institutions including where similar services are provided by a correspondent institution to a respondent institution, and including relationships established for securities transactions or transfers of funds as defined in Article 4, point (25), of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, transactions in crypto-assets or transfers of crypto-assets; |
| (23) | ‘shell institution’ means:(a)for credit institutions and financial institutions other than crypto-asset service providers: a credit institution or financial institution, or an institution that carries out activities equivalent to those carried out by credit institutions and financial institutions, created in a jurisdiction in which it has no physical presence, involving meaningful mind and management, and which is unaffiliated with a regulated financial group;(b)for crypto-asset service providers: an entity whose name appears in the register established by the European Securities and Markets Authority pursuant to Article 110 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 or third country entity providing crypto-asset services without being licensed or registered nor subject to AML/CFT supervision there; |
| (24) | ‘crypto-asset account’ means a crypto-asset account as defined in Article 3, point (19), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1113; |
| (25) | ‘anonymity-enhancing coins’ means crypto-assets that have built-in features designed to make crypto-asset transfer information anonymous, either systematically or optionally; |
| (26) | ‘virtual IBAN’ means an identifier causing payments to be redirected to a payment account identified by an IBAN different from that identifier; |
| (27) | ‘Legal Entity Identifier’ means a unique alphanumeric reference code based on the ISO 17442 standard assigned to a legal entity; |
| (28) | ‘beneficial owner’ means any natural person who ultimately owns or controls a legal entity or an express trust or similar legal arrangement; |
| (29) | ‘express trust’ means a trust intentionally set up by the settlor, inter vivos or on death, usually in a form of written document, to place assets under the control of a trustee for the benefit of a beneficiary or for a specified purpose; |
| (30) | ‘objects of a power’ means the natural or legal persons or class of natural or legal persons among whom trustees may select the beneficiaries in a discretionary trust; |
| (31) | ‘default taker’ means the natural or legal persons or class of natural or legal persons who are the beneficiaries of a discretionary trust should the trustees fail to exercise their discretion; |
| (32) | ‘legal arrangement’ means an express trust or an arrangement which has a similar structure or function to an express trust, including fiducie and certain types of Treuhand and fideicomiso; |
| (33) | ‘basic information’ means:(a)in relation to a legal entity:(i)legal form and name of the legal entity;(ii)instrument of constitution, and the statutes if they are contained in a separate instrument;(iii)address of the registered or official office and, if different, the principal place of business, and the country of creation;(iv)a list of legal representatives;(v)where applicable, a list of shareholders or members, including information on the number of shares held by each shareholder and the categories of those shares and the nature of the associated voting rights;(vi)where available, the registration number, the European Unique identifier, the tax identification number and the Legal Entity Identifier;(vii)in the case of foundations, the assets held by the foundation to pursue its purposes;(b)in relation to a legal arrangement:(i)the name or unique identifier of the legal arrangement;(ii)the trust deed or equivalent;(iii)the purposes of the legal arrangement, if any;(iv)the assets held in the legal arrangement or managed through it;(v)the place of residence of the trustees of the express trust or persons holding equivalent positions in the similar legal arrangement, and, if different, the place from where the express trust or similar legal arrangement is administered; |
| (34) | ‘politically exposed person’ means a natural person who is or has been entrusted with prominent public functions including:(a)in a Member State:(i)heads of State, heads of government, ministers and deputy or assistant ministers;(ii)members of parliament or of similar legislative bodies;(iii)members of the governing bodies of political parties that hold seats in national executive or legislative bodies, or in regional or local executive or legislative bodies representing constituencies of at least 50 000 inhabitants;(iv)members of supreme courts, of constitutional courts or of other high-level judicial bodies, the decisions of which are not subject to further appeal, except in exceptional circumstances;(v)members of courts of auditors or of the boards of central banks;(vi)ambassadors, chargés d’affaires and high-ranking officers in the armed forces;(vii)members of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of enterprises controlled under any of the relationships listed in Article 22 of Directive 2013/34/EU either by the state, or, where those enterprises qualify as medium sized or large undertakings or medium sized or large groups, as defined in Article 3(3), (4), (6) and (7) of that Directive, by regional or local authorities;(viii)heads of regional and local authorities, including groupings of municipalities and metropolitan regions, with at least 50 000 inhabitants;(ix)other prominent public functions provided for by Member States;(b)in an international organisation:(i)the highest ranking officials, their deputies and members of the board or equivalent functions of an international organisation;(ii)representatives to a Member State or to the Union;(c)at Union level:functions at the level of Union institutions and bodies that are equivalent to those listed in points (a) (i), (ii), (iv), (v) and (vi);(d)in a third country:functions that are equivalent to those listed in point (a); |
| (35) | ‘family member’ means:(a)a spouse, or a person in a registered partnership or civil union or in a similar arrangement;(b)a child and a spouse of, or a person in a registered partnership or civil union or in a similar arrangement with, that child;(c)a parent;(d)for the functions referred to in point (34)(a)(i) and equivalent functions at Union level or in a third country, a sibling; |
| (36) | ‘person known to be a close associate’ means:(a)a natural person who is known to have joint beneficial ownership of legal entities or legal arrangements, or any other close business relations, with a politically exposed person;(b)a natural person who has sole beneficial ownership of a legal entity or legal arrangement which is known to have been set up for the de facto benefit of a politically exposed person; |
| (37) | ‘management body’ means an obliged entity’s body or bodies, which are appointed in accordance with national law, which are empowered to set the obliged entity’s strategy, objectives and overall direction, and which oversee and monitor management decision-making, and include the persons who effectively direct the business of the obliged entity; where no such body exists, the person who effectively directs the business of the obliged entity; |
| (38) | ‘management body in its management function’ means the management body responsible for the day-to-day management of the obliged entity; |
| (39) | ‘management body in its supervisory function’ means the management body acting in its role of overseeing and monitoring management decision-making; |
| (40) | ‘senior management’ means the members of the management body in its management function, as well as officers and employees with sufficient knowledge of the obliged entity’s money laundering and terrorist financing risk exposure and sufficient seniority to take decisions affecting its risk exposure; |
| (41) | ‘group’ means a group of undertakings which consists of a parent undertaking, its subsidiaries, as well as undertakings linked to each other by a relationship within the meaning of Article 22 of Directive 2013/34/EU; |
| (42) | ‘parent undertaking’ means:(a)for groups whose head office is located in the Union, an obliged entity that is a parent undertaking as defined in Article 2, point (9), of Directive 2013/34/EU that is not itself a subsidiary of another undertaking in the Union, provided that at least one subsidiary undertaking is an obliged entity;(b)for groups whose head office is located outside of the Union, where at least two subsidiary undertakings are obliged entities established in the Union, an undertaking within that group established in the Union that:(i)is an obliged entity;(ii)is an undertaking that is not a subsidiary of another undertaking that is an obliged entity established in the Union;(iii)has a sufficient prominence within the group and a sufficient understanding of the operations of the group that are subject to the requirements of this Regulation; and(iv)is given the responsibility of implementing group-wide requirements under Chapter II, Section 2 of this Regulation; |
| (43) | ‘cash’ means cash as defined in Article 2(1), point (a), of Regulation (EU) 2018/1672 of the European Parliament and of the Council (39); |
| (44) | ‘competent authority’ means:(a)a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU);(b)a supervisory authority;(c)a public authority that has the function of investigating or prosecuting money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing, or that has the function of tracing, seizing or freezing and confiscating criminal assets;(d)a public authority with designated responsibilities for combating money laundering or terrorist financing; |
| (45) | ‘supervisor’ means the body entrusted with responsibilities aimed at ensuring compliance by obliged entities with the requirements of this Regulation, including AMLA when performing the tasks entrusted to it in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1620; |
| (46) | ‘supervisory authority’ means a supervisor who is a public body, or the public authority overseeing self-regulatory bodies in their performance of supervisory functions pursuant to Article 37 of Directive (EU) 2024/1640, or AMLA when acting as a supervisor; |
| (47) | ‘self-regulatory body’ means a body that represents members of a profession and has a role in regulating them, in performing certain supervisory or monitoring functions and in ensuring the enforcement of the rules relating to them; |
| (48) | ‘funds or other assets’ means any assets, including, but not limited to, financial assets, economic resources, including oil and other natural resources, property of every kind, whether tangible or intangible, movable or immovable, however acquired, and legal documents or instruments in any form, including electronic or digital, evidencing title to, or interest in, such funds or other assets, including, but not limited to, bank credits, travellers cheques, bank cheques, money orders, shares, securities, bonds, drafts, or letters of credit, and any interest, dividends or other income on or value accruing from or generated by such funds or other assets, and any other assets which potentially may be used to obtain funds, goods or services; |
| (49) | ‘targeted financial sanctions’ means both asset freezing and prohibitions to make funds or other assets available, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of designated persons and entities pursuant to Council Decisions adopted on the basis of Article 29 TEU and Council Regulations adopted on the basis of Article 215 TFEU; |
| (50) | ‘UN financial sanctions’ means both asset freezing and prohibitions to make funds or other assets available, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of designated or listed persons and entities pursuant to:(a)UNSC Resolution 1267 (1999) and its successor resolutions;(b)UNSC Resolution 1373 (2001), including the determination that the relevant sanctions will be applied to the person or entity and the public communication of that determination;(c)UN financial sanctions relating to proliferation financing; |
| (51) | ‘UN financial sanctions relating to proliferation financing’ means both asset freezing and prohibitions to make funds or other assets available, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of designated or listed persons and entities pursuant to:(a)UNSC Resolution 1718 (2006) and any successor resolutions;(b)UNSC Resolution 2231 (2015) and any successor resolutions;(c)any other UNSC resolutions imposing asset freezing and prohibitions to make funds or other assets available in relation to the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; |
| (52) | ‘professional football club’ means any legal person that is, owns or manages a football club that has been granted a licence and participates in the national football leagues in a Member State and whose players and staff are contractually engaged and are remunerated in exchange for their services; |
| (53) | ‘football agent’ means a natural or legal person who, for a fee, provides intermediary services and represents football players or professional football clubs in negotiations with a view to concluding a contract for a football player or represents professional football clubs in negotiations with a view to concluding an agreement for the transfer of a football player; |
| (54) | ‘high-value goods’ means goods listed in Annex IV; |
| (55) | ‘precious metals and stones’ means metals and stones listed in Annex V; |
| (56) | ‘cultural goods’ means goods listed in Annex I to Council Regulation (EC) No 116/2009 (40); |
| (57) | ‘partnership for information sharing’ means a mechanism that enables the sharing and processing of information between obliged entities and, where applicable, competent authorities referred to in point 44(a), (b) and (c), for the purposes of preventing and combating money laundering, its predicate offences and terrorist financing, whether at national level or on a cross-border basis, and regardless of the form of that partnership. |
2. Prominent public functions as referred to in paragraph 1, point (34), shall not be understood as covering middle-ranking or more junior officials.
3. Where justified by their administrative organisation and by risk, Member States may set lower thresholds for the designation of the following prominent public functions:
| (a) | members of governing bodies of political parties represented at regional or local level, as referred to in paragraph 1, point (34)(a)(iii); |
| (b) | heads of regional and local authorities, as referred to in paragraph 1, point (34)(a)(viii). |
Member States shall notify those lower thresholds to the Commission.
4. In relation to paragraph 1, point (34)(a)(vii) of this Article, where justified by their administrative organisation and by risk, Member States may set lower thresholds for the identification of enterprises controlled by regional or local authorities than those defined in Article 3(3), (4), (6) and (7) of Directive 2013/34/EU.
Member States shall notify those lower thresholds to the Commission.
5. Where justified by their social and cultural structures and by risk, Member States may apply a broader scope for the designation of siblings as family members of politically exposed persons, as referred to in paragraph 1, point (35)(d).
Member States shall notify that broader scope to the Commission.