AMLA’s harmonised suspicious-transaction report format under the AMLR

AMLA wants one suspicious-transaction report format for the whole EU — and on 2 July 2026 it put the draft technical standards out for consultation. Today a firm operating across borders files suspicious-activity reports into a different national FIU system in each country. Under Article 69(3) of the AML Regulation, a single harmonised template and a common data catalogue will replace that patchwork. This piece explains what AMLA proposed, what the AMLR already requires, the consultation timeline, and what obliged entities should prepare for.

1. What AMLA published

The Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) — the EU’s new central AML/CFT authority, established by Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 and seated in Frankfurt — opened a public consultation on 2 July 2026 on draft implementing technical standards (ITS) setting the format for reporting suspicions and for providing transaction records. The mandate comes from Article 69(3) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 — the AML Regulation (AMLR), the “single rulebook” that becomes applicable across the EU on 10 July 2027.

2. What the AMLR already requires

Article 69(1) of the AMLR obliges entities to report, on their own initiative, any suspicion that funds are the proceeds of criminal activity or are linked to terrorist financing, and to provide the financial intelligence unit (FIU), on request, with all necessary information — including transaction records. The ITS does not create that duty; it standardises how it is discharged, so that a report filed in one member state carries the same structured data as one filed in another.

3. What the draft ITS introduces