Article 45(6) of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (MLD4) mandates the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) to draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) on the measures credit and financial institutions will be required to take to manage the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing where they have branches or majority-owned subsidiaries in third countries that prohibit the implementation of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures consistent with those required by the MLD4, among others. The ESAs were required to submit the draft RTS to the European Commission (Commission) by 26 December 2016.

The ESAs have now co-published a letter that they sent to the Commission on 22 December 2016, explaining that they are not in a position to meet the deadline

In the letter the ESAs explain that they had to prioritise the mandates they had been given under the MLD4. As a result, they decided to deprioritise these draft RTS because enquiries with the national competent authorities and stakeholder groups suggested that there are no third countries that meet the description in Article 45(1) of the MLD4, and therefore the RTS would have limited application in practice.

The ESAs note that the proposed amendments to Article 45 of the MLD4, if adopted, will extend the scope of the article to third countries that have not been captured so far. The ESAs state that they are ready to start working on the mandate in 2017 and expect to submit the final draft RTS by 31 December 2017.

View ESAs letter confirms delay of MLD4 RTS, 22 December 2016