Offenbach: AMLA direct supervision will start in January 2028, and the first group of about 40 institutions is already taking shape. The Anti-Money Laundering Authority, based in Frankfurt, began operating on 1 July 2025 under Regulation 2024/1620. It will supervise a select group of high-risk entities that are active in at least six Member States.

The Authority chooses those entities on objective cross-border and risk criteria. The first wave is expected to include mostly large banking groups, together with payment institutions, e-money firms and crypto-asset service providers. The selection process begins by 1 July 2027 and concludes within six months, which leaves January 2028 as the launch date for AMLA direct supervision.

The transfer of tasks is already complete. On 1 January 2026 the European Banking Authority handed all its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing mandates to AMLA. The Authority has also been working through 23 Level 2 and Level 3 measures, most of them due by 10 July 2026. This groundwork prepares the ground for the supervisory work ahead.

Germany won the bid to host the Authority in February 2024, and its Frankfurt base places it in the same financial centre as many of the large banking groups it will oversee. The location also keeps it close to the European Central Bank and to national supervisors, with which it must coordinate through the wider anti-money laundering system.

A second date matters just as much. From 10 July 2027, the directly applicable Anti-Money Laundering Regulation limits the ability of firms to rely on national readings of customer due diligence and know-your-customer rules. A single rulebook narrows the room for different national interpretations.

The scope of anti-money laundering rules also widens. All crypto-asset service providers authorised under MiCAR, crowdfunding platforms and non-bank consumer credit providers come fully into scope. Those firms will not all fall under AMLA direct supervision, but they will face the same harmonised rulebook.

Banks and payment groups with operations in many Member States should check now whether they meet the six-country test for AMLA direct supervision. Early preparation matters because the selection process opens on 1 July 2027. The test is demanding, because it requires activity in at least six Member States and a high risk profile, so firms with a narrower footprint fall outside the first wave. Those that qualify should expect a closer and more uniform supervisory relationship than national authorities offered before.

AMLA direct supervision turns a new agency into a hands-on supervisor, and the next milestone is the July 2027 selection round.