EU crypto AML authority to establish headquarters in Frankfurt

The EU's new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) will be headquartered in the German financial capital of Frankfurt. The regulatory body will begin operations in mid-2025.

AMLA will have the power to regulate “high-risk and cross-border financial entities” — including crypto firms — that operate across borders or are deemed to be high-risk. It coordinates its supervisory work with the financial intelligence units and regulators of other EU countries.

On February 22, a press release by the Council of the European Union and the Council of Europe announced that Frankfurt was the chosen city for the new agency's headquarters. The European Central Bank is also located in the city. A list of alternative locations includes Brussels, Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Riga, Vilnius and Vienna.

AMLA's general board consists of representatives of regulators and financial intelligence departments of all EU member states, and the governing body – the executive – includes the chairman and five independent full-time members.

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The first comprehensive EU crypto framework, Markets in Crypto-assets (MCA), came into force in June 2023, but the implementation of rules governing “asset-denominated tokens” and “e-tokens” mostly fall under the umbrella. The stablecoins are expected to be implemented in June 2024. The “crypto-asset service providers” regulations, which include trading platforms, wallet providers and cryptocurrency exchanges and services, will come into force in December 2024.

Meanwhile, the European Union is busy drafting regulations on the use of artificial intelligence (AI). In the year On February 13, the European Parliament's Internal Market and Civil Liberties Committees approved a preliminary agreement on European AI legislation, the world's first AI-specific legislation.

EU AI legislation aims to establish protections for creators, including copyright protection, in response to generative AI models. It bans AI applications that pose a threat to citizens' rights, such as biometric categorization and social scoring. The first parliamentary vote on AI legislation is scheduled for April 2024.

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