Ireland signs EU AML regulations into law

This paves the way for the establishment of a central database of payment accounts, bank accounts and safe-deposit boxes held with credit institutions (banks, and Class 1 investment firms) in Ireland. The requirement (under the Fourth Money Laundering Directive (MLD4)) to establish a central database by 10 September 2020 was one of the outstanding deliverables when Ireland transposed MLD4 and the Fifth Money Laundering Directive (MLD5).

Under the new regulations, the central bank has been tasked with setting up a central database on which information in relation to those bank accounts, payment accounts and safe-deposit boxes will be entered, together with a central mechanism of Ownership of Bank and Payment Accounts and Safe-Deposit Boxes which will enable FIU Ireland (Ireland’s financial intelligence unit) to search across that information. The central bank has not yet confirmed the likely timing for the establishment of the central database or the central mechanism.

Once the central database and the central mechanism have been set-up, the central bank may ask credit institutions to provide it with the following information:

• for bank and payment accounts: the name and address (and, in the case of individuals, date of birth) of the customer-account holder and of its beneficial owners, together with the IBAN, account name, account-opening date and (if applicable) account-closing date; and
• for safe-deposit boxes: the name and address (and, in the case of an individual, date of birth) of the lessee.  By way of reminder, banks and financial institutions can no longer establish or maintain anonymous safe-deposit boxes since MLD5 was transposed in 2021.