The European Union’s new Anti-Money Laundering Authority said it is on track to become fully operational in 2028, setting out a multi-year plan that flags emerging illicit-finance threats ranging from crypto-assets to “novel payment channels,” Reuters reported.

AMLA will be the EU’s first bloc-wide authority dedicated to combating money laundering and terrorist financing, shifting oversight from largely national approaches to a more unified system. EU leaders first proposed the creation of the body in 2021, following a series of major money-laundering scandals that exposed weaknesses in the bloc’s reliance on patchwork regulatory enforcement by member-states. 

From 2028, the agency is expected to directly supervise 40 EU financial institutions deemed to pose the highest money-laundering risk. Under its 2026–2028 plan, AMLA said it will finalize the methodology for its risk assessment in 2026 and begin selecting the institutions it will supervise in 2027.

AMLA also said it has already met an initial 2025 staffing target by hiring 120 employees toward a planned headcount of 432, Reuters reported.

In a report setting out the plan, AMLA chair Bruna Szego wrote that the authority represents “a new chapter” in Europe’s fight against dirty money and terrorism financing, moving from “fragmented national responses” to a “unified, risk-based system” designed for modern criminal networks. 

Szego said the challenges ahead, “from crypto-asset supervision to cross-border criminal innovation,” require strong technical capability and sound governance.

Last month, Chainalysis estimated that money laundering via the crypto sector grew from $10 billion in 2020 to more than $82 billion in 2025, a jump it attributes to the growing liquidity and accessibility of crypto as well as a structural shift in who provides laundering services and how those services operate. 

Read more at Reuters

Read the AMLA’s plan here