Article 40
1. Member States shall require obliged entities to retain the following documents and information in accordance with national law for the purpose of preventing, detecting and investigating, by the FIU or by other competent authorities, possible money laundering or terrorist financing: (a) in the case of customer due diligence, a copy of the documents and information which are necessary to comply with the customer due diligence requirements laid down in Chapter II, for a period of five years after the end of the business relationship with their customer or after the date of an occasional transaction; (b) the supporting evidence and records of transactions, consisting of the original documents or copies admissible in judicial proceedings under the applicable national law, which are necessary to identify transactions, for a period of five years after the end of a business relationship with their customer or after the date of an occasional transaction. Upon expiry of the retention periods referred to in the first subparagraph, Member States shall ensure that obliged entities delete personal data, unless otherwise provided for by national law, which shall determine under which circumstances obliged entities may or shall further retain data. Member States may allow or require further retention after they have carried out a thorough assessment of the necessity and proportionality of such further retention and consider it to be justified as necessary for the prevention, detection or investigation of money laundering or terrorist financing. That further retention period shall not exceed five additional years. 2. Where, on 25 June 2015, legal proceedings concerned with the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of suspected money laundering or terrorist financing are pending in a Member State, and an obliged entity holds information or documents relating to those pending proceedings, the obliged entity may retain that information or those documents, in accordance with national law, for a period of five years from 25 June 2015. Member States may, without prejudice to national criminal law on evidence applicable to ongoing criminal investigations and legal proceedings, allow or require the retention of such information or documents for a further period of five years where the necessity and proportionality of such further retention has been established for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of suspected money laundering or terrorist financing.