THE GOVERNMENT HAS announced its intention to make a bid for Ireland to be the  home of the European Union’s new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) HQ. 

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath gave a briefing at Cabinet today about his proposal to put Ireland forward to host the new authority. 

The AMLA is to be a significant new EU institution, tasked with the supervision of entities in the financial services sector and other operations, in order to assess their compliance with anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism rules and standards. 

The institution is to be set up next year, but it is not expected to be fully operational until 2026, or the year after.

Its formation comes as concerns have been expressed about the need for anti-money laundering rules and regulations to be strengthened across EU member states, and for them to be applied in a uniform way. 

AMLA will host a secure communications network for the EU member States’ national Financial Intelligence Units, which is currently hosted by Interpol (In Ireland, our national financial intelligence unit is a  branch of An Garda Síochána). 

Speaking today on Ireland’s bid to host this new European authority, McGrath said that he believes Ireland will be a “great location” for it.

“We have a significant financial services sector, built over decades, that will be subject to AMLA’s direction and the new Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Rulebook.

“We have a robust framework which will be further enhanced by this new agency. Hosting it here will only add to Ireland’s and the EU’s compliance with international standards,” he added.  

 The Minister said he looks forward to making the case for Ireland to be the home of AMLA.