EU bans cash payments over €10k in battle against terrorism and organised crime | World | News | Express.co.uk
The new legislation is welcomed as a “fight against dirty money in the EU”.
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The EU is banning payments of over 10,000 euros in cash (Image: Getty)
The European Parliament has announced that payments of €10,000 or more paid in cash are now illegal. The new law is an attempt to fight back against fraudsters, terrorists and organised crime professionals who use huge cash payments to “legitimise their profits”.
The new legislation also makes it harder for money laundering and terrorist financing through banks, estate agents and casinos. These organisations will now have to identify their customers or the owners of assets behind “opaque” financial arrangements, reports Economie.
The crypto assets sector will also be impacted to bring more traceability to the sector, while trade in luxury goods will also be affected – sales in precious metals, jewellery, watches, and high-end cars, yachts and jets will all be subject to the new rules.
EU bans cash payments over €10k in battle against terrorism and organised crime
Banks and other organisations will now have to identify their customers (Image: Getty)
Some EU countries – as well as the UK – had already made the payment of over €10,000 in cash subject to declaration to the authorities, although the act of paying it in cash was legal.
For example, anything above €1,000 in France needed to be declared, while it was €3,000 in Belgium and € 15,000 in Poland. Others, such as Austria and Germany, had – until now – no limits on cash payments.
It was found by a study by Ecorys that a universal legal limit was needed, as otherwise illegal activity could just cross borders to unaffected countries, before reverting back into the same place it had come from.
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The European Parliament has agreed to set up a new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (Image: Getty)
The new laws come amid a notable step up to “fight against dirty money in the EU”, said Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness. In December, the European Parliament and its Member States approved the creation of a new European Union agency to fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
The Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) will supervise and coordinate national authorities in a quest to better detect and combat suspicious cross-border activities. The package of measures was originally proposed by the European Commission in July 2021.
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