Recital 140

(140) FIUs should be able to obtain swiftly from any obliged entity all the necessary information relating to their functions. Their unfettered and swift access to information is essential to ensure that flows of money can be properly traced and illicit networks and flows detected at an early stage. The need for FIUs to obtain additional information from obliged entities based on a suspicion of money laundering or financing of terrorism might be triggered by a prior suspicious transaction report reported to the FIU, but might also be triggered through other means such as the FIU’s own analysis, intelligence provided by competent authorities or information held by another FIU. FIUs should therefore be able, in the context of their functions, to obtain information from any obliged entity, even without a prior report being made. In particular, records of financial transactions and transfers carried out through a bank, payment or crypto-asset account are critical for the analytical work of FIUs. However, due to the lack of harmonisation, at present credit institutions and financial institutions provide FIUs with transaction records in different formats, which are not readily useable for analysis. Considering the cross-border nature of FIUs’ analytical activities, the disparity of formats and difficulties of processing transaction records hamper the exchange of information among FIUs and the development of cross-border financial analyses. AMLA should therefore develop draft implementing technical standards specifying a common template for the provision of transaction records by credit institutions and financial institutions to FIUs to be used as a uniform basis throughout the Union.

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-09-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.