Article 53 General provisions

Member States shall ensure that obliged entitiesmeans a natural or legal person listed in Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 that is not exempted in accordance with Article 4, 5, 6 or 7 of that Regulation; can be held liable for breaches of Regulations (EU) 2024/1624 and (EU) 2023/1113 in accordance with this Section.

Without prejudice to the right of Member States to provide for and impose criminal sanctions, Member States shall lay down rules on pecuniary sanctions and administrative measures and ensure that supervisorsmeans the body entrusted with responsibilities aimed at ensuring compliance by obliged entities with the requirements of this Regulation, including AMLA when performing the tasks entrusted to it in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1620; may impose such pecuniary sanctions and apply administrative measures with respect to breaches of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 or Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 and shall ensure that they are enforced. Any sanction imposed or measure applied pursuant to this Section shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

By way of derogation from paragraph 2, where the legal system of a Member State does not provide for administrative sanctions, this Article may be applied in such a manner that the pecuniary sanction is initiated by the supervisormeans the body entrusted with responsibilities aimed at ensuring compliance by obliged entities with the requirements of this Regulation, including AMLA when performing the tasks entrusted to it in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1620; and imposed by a judicial authority, while ensuring that those legal remedies are effective and have an equivalent effect to the pecuniary sanctions imposed by supervisorsmeans the body entrusted with responsibilities aimed at ensuring compliance by obliged entities with the requirements of this Regulation, including AMLA when performing the tasks entrusted to it in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1620;. In any event, the pecuniary sanctions imposed shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

The Member States referred to in the first subparagraph shall communicate to the Commission the measures of national law which they adopt pursuant to this paragraph by 10 July 2027 and, without delay, any subsequent amendments thereto.

In the event of a breach of Regulations (EU) 2024/1624 and (EU) 2023/1113, Member States shall ensure that where obligations apply to legal persons, pecuniary sanctions can be imposed and administrative measures can be applied not only to the legal person, but also to the senior managementmeans the members of the management body in its management function, as well as officers and employees with sufficient knowledge of the obliged entity’s money laundering and terrorist financing risk exposure and sufficient seniority to take decisions affecting its risk exposure; and to other natural persons who under national law are responsible for the breach.

Member States shall ensure that where supervisorsmeans the body entrusted with responsibilities aimed at ensuring compliance by obliged entities with the requirements of this Regulation, including AMLA when performing the tasks entrusted to it in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1620; identify breaches which are subject to criminal sanctions, they inform the authorities competent for investigating and prosecuting criminal activitiesmeans criminal activity as defined in Article 2, point (1), of Directive (EU) 2018/1673, as well as fraud affecting the Union’s financial interests as defined in Article 3(2) of Directive (EU) 2017/1371, passive and active corruption as defined in Article 4 (2) and misappropriation as defined in Article 4(3), second subparagraph, of that Directive; in a timely manner.

1. directly by the supervisorsmeans the body entrusted with responsibilities aimed at ensuring compliance by obliged entities with the requirements of this Regulation, including AMLA when performing the tasks entrusted to it in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1620;;

2. in cooperation between the supervisorsmeans the body entrusted with responsibilities aimed at ensuring compliance by obliged entities with the requirements of this Regulation, including AMLA when performing the tasks entrusted to it in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1620; and other authorities;

3. under the responsibility of the supervisorsmeans the body entrusted with responsibilities aimed at ensuring compliance by obliged entities with the requirements of this Regulation, including AMLA when performing the tasks entrusted to it in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1620; by delegation to other authorities;

4. by application by the supervisorsmeans the body entrusted with responsibilities aimed at ensuring compliance by obliged entities with the requirements of this Regulation, including AMLA when performing the tasks entrusted to it in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1620; to the competent judicial authorities.

1. the gravity and the duration of the breach;

2. the number of instances the breach was repeated;

3. the degree of responsibility of the natural or legal person held responsible;

4. the financial strength of the natural or legal person held responsible, including in light of its total turnover or annual income;

5. the benefit derived from the breach by the natural or legal person held responsible, insofar as it can be determined;

6. the losses to third parties caused by the breach, insofar as they can be determined;

7. the level of cooperation of the natural or legal person held responsible with the competent authoritymeans:a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU);a supervisory authority;a public authority that has the function of investigating or prosecuting money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing, or that has the function of tracing, seizing or freezing and confiscating criminal assets;a public authority with designated responsibilities for combating money laundering or terrorist financing;;

8. previous breaches by the natural or legal person held responsible.

1. a power to represent the legal person;

2. an authority to take decisions on behalf of the legal person;

3. an authority to exercise control within the legal person.

Member States shall ensure that legal persons can be held liable where the lack of supervision or control by a person as referred to in paragraph 7 of this Article has made possible the breaches of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 or Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 by a person under their authority on behalf of or for the benefit of the legal person.

In the exercise of their powers to impose pecuniary sanctions and apply administrative measures, supervisorsmeans the body entrusted with responsibilities aimed at ensuring compliance by obliged entities with the requirements of this Regulation, including AMLA when performing the tasks entrusted to it in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1620; shall cooperate closely and, where relevant, coordinate their actions with other authorities as appropriate, in order to ensure that those pecuniary sanctions or administrative measures produce the desired results and coordinate their action when dealing with cross-border cases.

1. indicators to classify the level of gravity of breaches;

2. criteria to be taken into account when setting the level of pecuniary sanctions or applying administrative measures pursuant to this Section;

3. a methodology for the imposition of periodic penalty payments pursuant to Article 57, including their frequency.

By 10 July 2026, AMLA shall issue guidelines on the base amounts for the imposing of pecuniary sanctions relative to turnover, broken down per type of breach and category of obliged entitiesmeans a natural or legal person listed in Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 that is not exempted in accordance with Article 4, 5, 6 or 7 of that Regulation;.