Payment service providers and electronic money issuers with a head office in an EU Member State can operate establishments in other, host, Member States. Such establishments have to comply with the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML / CFT) regime of the Member State in which they are based, even if they are not obliged entities themselves.
To facilitate AML / CFT supervision, several Member States require payment service providers and electronic money issuers to appoint a ‘central contact point’ (CCPoint). A CCPoint acts as a point of contact between the payment service provider or electronic money issuer and the host Member State’s competent authority. However, absent a common European approach to CCPoints, there are concerns regarding a risk of regulatory arbitrage.
To deal with this risk Article 45(10) of the Fourth Money Laundering Directive (4MLD) requires the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) to draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) that:
- create legal certainty about the criteria that Member States will use to determine whether or not a CCPoint must be appointed; and
- clearly set out the functions a CCPoint must have to fulfil its duties.
Between February and May 2017 the ESAs publicly consulted on the draft RTS.
The ESAs have now published a final report containing the draft RTS which will be submitted to the European Commission for approval. Minor changes were made to the draft RTS as a result of the earlier public consultation.
In line with the mandate set out in Article 45(10) of the 4MLD, the draft RTS do not specify the form a CCPoint must take or determine when payment service providers or electronic money issuers provide services in another Member State through establishments.
View ESAs publish central contact point standards in fight against financial crime, 26 June 2017
