The European Council has reached an agreement for the establishment of an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) body, keeping authoritative oversight over particular crypto asset service providers (CASPs).

Specifically, the council reportedly revealed that said it came to an agreement on a partial position regarding a proposal to introduce a dedicated Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA). Per the regulatory body, the AML body will keep an authoritative oversight on “high-risk and cross-border financial entities”, with crypto entities to fall under their scope – “if they are considered risky.”

European Parliament member Ondřej Kovařík further claimed that officials in the EU had also reached a “provisional political agreement” on the government body’s Transfer of Funds Regulation. 

Although specific information of the revision is not clarified at the time of publication, a March draft of the regulation could make it mandatory for crypto service providers to gather personal data in association with transfers of any size made to and from unhosted wallets, together with potentially verifying their accuracy.

“We are putting an end to the wild west of unregulated crypto, closing major loopholes in the European anti-money laundering rules,” said European Parliament member Ernest Urtasun.

 “The rules won’t apply to P2P transfers where there is no obliged entity involved […] CASPs will be required to collect information and apply enhanced due diligence measures with respect to all transfers involving unhosted wallets, on a risk basis.”

Initially put up in July last year, the AMLA is slated to officially function in 2024 and “start the work of direct supervision slightly later,” as revealed by the European Commission. The financial watchdog will be among the pioneering regulatory institutions possessing the authoritative power to supervise money laundering throughout major territories of Europe, coordinating with respective nations’ financial on intelligence units and working with local regulators.