Subject matter
1. This Directive lays down measures to facilitate access to and the use of financial information and bank account information by competent authorities for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of serious criminal offences. It also lays down measures to facilitate access to law enforcement information by Financial Intelligence Units (‘FIUs’) for the prevention and combating of money laundering, associate predicate offences and terrorist financing and measures to facilitate cooperation between FIUs.
2. This Directive is without prejudice to:
(a)
Directive (EU) 2015/849 and the related provisions of national law, including the organisational status conferred on FIUs under national law as well as their operational independence and autonomy;
(b)
channels for the exchange of information between competent authorities or the powers of competent authorities under Union or national law to obtain information from obliged entities;
(c)
Regulation (EU) 2016/794;
(d)
the obligations resulting from Union instruments on mutual legal assistance or on mutual recognition of decisions regarding criminal matters and from Framework Decision 2006/960/JHA.
Definitions
For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions apply:
(1)
‘centralised bank account registries’ means the centralised automated mechanisms, such as central registries or central electronic data retrieval systems, put in place in accordance with Article 32a(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/849;
(2)
‘Asset Recovery Offices’ means the national offices set up or designated by each Member State pursuant to Decision 2007/845/JHA;
(3)
‘Financial Intelligence Unit (“FIU”)’ means an FIU as established pursuant to Article 32 of Directive (EU) 2015/849;
(4)
‘obliged entities’ means the entities set out in Article 2(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/849;
(5)
‘financial information’ means any type of information or data, such as data on financial assets, movements of funds or financial business relationships, which is already held by FIUs to prevent, detect and effectively combat money laundering and terrorist financing;
(6)
‘law enforcement information’ means:
(i)
any type of information or data which is already held by competent authorities in the context of preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting criminal offences;
(ii)
any type of information or data which is held by public authorities or by private entities in the context of preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting criminal offences and which is available to competent authorities without the taking of coercive measures under national law;
such information can be, inter alia, criminal records, information on investigations, information on the freezing or seizure of assets or on other investigative or provisional measures and information on convictions and on confiscations;
(7)
‘bank account information’ means the following information on bank and payment accounts and safe-deposit boxes contained in the centralised bank account registries:
(i)
as regards the customer-account holder and any person purporting to act on behalf of the customer: the name, complemented by either the other identification data required under the national provisions transposing point (a) of Article 13(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/849 or a unique identification number;
(ii)
as regards the beneficial owner of the customer-account holder: the name, complemented by either the other identification data required under the national provisions transposing point (b) of Article 13(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/849 or a unique identification number;
(iii)
as regards the bank or payment account: the IBAN number and the date of account opening and closing;
(iv)
as regards the safe-deposit box: the name of the lessee, complemented by the other identification data required under the national provisions transposing Article 13(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/849 or a unique identification number, and the duration of the lease period;
(8)
‘money laundering’ means the conduct defined in Article 3 of Directive (EU) 2018/1673 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 14 ) ;
(9)
‘associated predicate offences’ means the offences referred to in point (1) of Article 2 of Directive (EU) 2018/1673;
(10)
‘terrorist financing’ means the conduct defined in Article 11 of Directive (EU) 2017/541 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 15 ) ;
(11)
‘financial analysis’ means the results of operational and strategic analysis that has already been carried out by the FIUs in the performance of their tasks, pursuant to Directive (EU) 2015/849;
(12)
‘serious criminal offences’ means the forms of crime listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2016/794.
Designation of competent authorities
1. Each Member State shall designate, among its authorities competent for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of criminal offences, the competent authorities empowered to access and search its national centralised bank account registry. Those competent authorities shall include at least the Asset Recovery Offices.
2. Each Member State shall designate, among its authorities competent for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of criminal offences, the competent authorities that can request and receive financial information or financial analysis from the FIU.
3. Each Member State shall notify the Commission of its competent authorities designated pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2 by 2 December 2021, and shall notify the Commission of any amendment thereto. The Commission shall publish the notifications in the Official Journal of the European Union .
