The European Union’s new agency to combat illicit financial flows said on Wednesday it remains on track to be fully operational in 2028, as it outlined plans to address emerging risks ranging from crypto-assets to new payment technologies.
The Anti-Money Laundering Authority, known as AMLA, is being established in Frankfurt and will become the first EU-wide body dedicated to fighting money laundering and terrorism financing across the bloc. Once operational, the authority will directly supervise 40 financial institutions considered to pose the highest money-laundering risks within the EU.
According to a 2026–2028 strategy document released on Wednesday, AMLA will finalise its risk assessment methodology in 2026 and begin selecting the institutions it will oversee in 2027. The agency said it has already met its initial staffing goal for 2025, hiring 120 employees out of a planned workforce of 432.
The creation of AMLA was first proposed in 2021, following a series of high-profile money-laundering scandals that exposed weaknesses in Europe’s fragmented system of national supervision. EU officials argued at the time that inconsistent enforcement and limited cross-border coordination had left the bloc vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated financial crime.
“AMLA marks a new chapter in Europe’s fight against money laundering and terrorism financing, transitioning from fragmented national responses to a unified, risk-based system tailored to the complexity of today’s criminal networks,” AMLA chair Bruna Szego wrote in the report. She added that challenges such as crypto-asset oversight and cross-border criminal innovation require an authority with strong technical expertise and robust governance.
The plan highlights crypto-assets and novel payment channels as key areas of concern. Researchers estimate that money launderers received at least $82 billion in cryptocurrencies last year, up sharply from around $10 billion five years earlier. Still, the Financial Action Task Force has said that the vast majority of terrorist financing continues to rely on traditional financial systems.
Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Brussels on Tuesday, AMLA board member Derville Rowland said the agency would take an evidence-based approach when determining its priorities. She noted that AMLA has not yet decided how heavily it will focus on crypto compared with other sectors.
“When we look at money-laundering risk, it is present in some sectors more than others,” Rowland said. “Crypto is certainly an area where technology and secrecy can coincide to produce a high money-laundering risk.”
With its headquarters in Frankfurt and a mandate that cuts across national borders, AMLA is expected to play a central role in reshaping how the EU responds to financial crime, particularly as digital assets and new payment methods continue to evolve faster than traditional regulatory frameworks.