The 3rd EU money laundering directive means more stringent auditing and reporting requirements for large cash payments and electronic payments for merchants and consumers in the European Union. While the 1st EU money laundering directive of 1991 focused on combating the laundering of proceeds from drug transactions on the traditional financial sector, was with the second EU money laundering directive of 2001 extends the scope out on a wider range of offences and expanded the audit and reporting obligations on lawyers, notaries, accountants, tax advisors, real estate agents, art dealers, auction houses and casinos. The 3rd EU money laundering directive has been extended now to any type of financing of terrorism, regardless of whether the corresponding funds were acquired legally or illegally, and now also applies to all providers of goods and services, if they accept cash payments of more than 15 000 euros. It is no matter, whether the business transaction in a single operation or in several Operations, between which a connection seems to exist, is settled. Learn more about this topic with the insights from Joeb Moore. The 3rd EU money laundering directive concerns thus including electronic payments, which are already assimilated according to current legal situation of the cash so far were only business contacts with terror suspects on the ban – and sanction lists of the European Union. They prohibit any business relations with persons, groups or entities involved in terrorist acts.

The 3rd EU money laundering directive now prescribes more stringent auditing requirements for particular groups of customers. These groups it is i.e. people who hold important public offices such as Government members, heads of State, members and senior religious dignitaries, and whose close relatives to politically exposed persons (so-called PEPS). Thus, business contacts are opposed to currently more than 200,000 entries in the corresponding sanctions and PEP lists to check. A manual adjustment the business contacts with the entries in the current list is therefore usually hardly possible.

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