Football clubs and agents are about to come under the same anti-money laundering scrutiny as banks and financial institutions.

Under new regulation the list of “obliged entities” will be expanded to include investment migration operators, professional football clubs and agents, crowdfunding platforms and credit intermediaries, sectors that, until now, have largely operated outside the tightest AML/CFT (anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism) compliance frameworks.

For Malta, this means that industries as varied as sports, finance, gaming and citizenship-by-investment will all face EU-level oversight through the newly established Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), working hand-in-hand with local regulators like the MFSA and FIAU.

Malta’s anti-money laundering framework is currently based on national laws and supervised by the FIAU, which oversees all entities covered by these rules.

The new EU-wide framework, which will replace the national AML/CFT obligations, aims to make supervision more consistent across Europe, harmonise rules and improve cooperation.

AMLA will not replace Malta’s regulators but will work closely with the MFSA and FIAU. While some procedures and reporting requirements may change, the overall compliance rules will remain largely the same. Local laws will also be updated to match the new EU anti-money laundering framework.

While the FIAU will continue overseeing most obliged entities in Malta, AMLA will take direct responsibility for a small number of cross-border financial institutions chosen through a common EU selection process.

This means AMLA may directly supervise only a very small number of Maltese entities, and possibly none at all.

Some responsibilities of the new AMLA will be:

• Working with national regulators to ensure EU rules are applied consistently in all Member States.
• Directly supervising selected high-risk, cross-border financial institutions, with the power to take over cases and issue sanctions or fines.
• Overseeing non-selected entities indirectly through coordination with national authorities.
• Developing EU-wide technical standards and guidelines to harmonise supervision.
• Supporting Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) by enabling joint investigations, hosting the EU’s FIU.net system, and improving secure information sharing.