Germany's new Anti-Money Laundering Act: a "1:1" implementation of the EU AML package – or is it?

The new EU AML Package will apply from 10 July 2027. The substantive AML rules will be set out in a new European regulation, which will apply directly across all Member States (the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation, AMLR). The AMLR leaves Member States options and discretions, which require an implementation into national law. Similarly, the Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/1640, AMLD6), which governs institutional aspects of AML, must also be transposed into national law. 

On 30 October 2026, the German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) published a draft bill (Referentenentwurf) demonstrating how it intends to implement the options and discretions under the AMLR and AMDL6. The headline: “1:1” implementation. However, a closer look is more nuanced.

This blogpost sets out our key takeaways:

1. The GwG is repealed and replaced by the GwBG

The draft repeals the Money Laundering Act (Geldwäschegesetz, GwG) with effect from 10 July 2027 and replaces it with a new core act, the Geldwäschebekämpfungsgesetz (GwBG). As risk management, customer due diligence and reporting obligations will be set out directly in the AMLR, the corresponding GwG provisions fall away. What remains part of the national framework are mostly institutional arrangements, e.g., provisions on the Transparency Register, a central access point for real estate information, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), and supervision and sanctions.

At odds with the headline of a “1:1” implementation, the transition from the GwG to the GwBG does not only add a letter to the statutory act. It adds 63 new sections to the GwBG, although the majority of substantive AML regulation will be set out in the AMLR and its delegated acts. The future of AML compliance will therefore be more complex.

2. The promise: 1:1 implementation, no gold-plating

The BMF explains that AMLD6 is implemented “1:1”, with options and discretions exercised in a "risk-oriented" manner. Accordingly, several aspects of current German gold-plating will fall away with the GwBG, including:

• Traders in goods will only be obliged entities where they deal in precious metals and stones, high-value goods or cultural goods (Article 3(3)(e), (f), (i) and (j) AMLR). Given the EU cash limit of EUR10,000 (Article 80(1) AMLR), other traders are not covered nationally. The confirmation that by the German legislator that most traders in goods will not qualify as obliged entities in the future is certainly a welcome change!
• A German particularity was also that the MLRO must generally carry out its activities in Germany (section 7(5) GwG), an issue that has often come up in practice for foreign banks. The AMLR and the GwBG will not provide for such an requirement. Similarly, the requirement to appoint deputy MLROs was also not carried across to the AMLR/GwBG framework.

However, as usual, the “1:1” label deserves qualification:

• The new section 3 GwBG adds three groups of obliged entities in addition to the entities that are listed in Article 3 AMLR: (i) deposit-only institutions that are not CRR credit institutions, (ii) institutions offering underwriting in relation to non-MiFID financial instruments, and (iii) institutions that provide qualified crypto custody and crypto securities registry management. The legal basis is Article 3(7) AMLD6, which allows Member States to apply "all or part" of the AMLR to sectors already covered by national AML rules on 9 July 2024. Strictly, this is the use of an EU option rather than gold-plating, but it goes beyond the harmonised scope of Article 3 AMLR, and section 3(2) GwBG-E applies the AMLR "in full" although Article 3(7) AMLD6 provides for a partial application. 
• Retained real estate instruments: Section 9 GwBG-E prohibits payment for domestic real estate and for shares in property-holding companies in cash, crypto-assets, gold, platinum or precious stones. Article 80(2) AMLR allows cash limits below EUR10,000, but the German ban goes further by also covering crypto-assets and precious metals. 
• Real estate reporting duties for notaries, lawyers, auditors and tax advisers are retained (section 72(4) GwBG-E), using the option in Article 70(3) AMLR. 
• For online gambling, section 11 GwBG-E continues special rules and disapplies the EUR 2,000 threshold of Article 19(5) AMLR.

Our take: the draft is better described as "1:1 plus" than as "1:1". It uses opening clauses to preserve the status quo where German authorities see continued risk, while making genuine cuts elsewhere.

3. Supervision: a central coordinator at Bafin

Around 200,000 non-financial obliged entities are supervised by roughly 250 state-level authorities and chambers in Germany. Implementing the coordination mechanism required by Article 37(4) AMLD6, the draft creates a Central Coordination Office for AML Supervision (Zentrale Koordinierungsstelle Geldwäscheaufsicht, ZKGw) at Bafin. It coordinates across and within sectors and supports non-financial supervisors and the oversight of the self-regulated bodies (Article 52 AMLD6), without supervising obliged entities itself.

4. A stronger FIU – with a fundamental rights safeguard

The FIU remains an operationally independent unit within the Central Customs Authority (Article 19(4) AMLD6). It may suspend or withhold consent to transactions for up to ten working days and suspend the use of bank, payment or crypto-asset accounts for up to five working days (section 51 GwBG-E, implementing the maximum periods in Article 24(1) and (2) AMLD6). It may also issue monitoring orders (Article 25 AMLD6). As a counterweight, an independent Fundamental Rights Officer is introduced (Article 20 AMLD6).

5. Cash limit and sanctions

The draft adds enforcement rules for the ban on cash payments exceeding EUR10,000 and the related reporting duty (Article 80(1) and (4) AMLR). Notably, both parties to the cash transaction may be subject to fines. Consequences of serious, repeated or systematic breaches of the cash payments ban can include fines of up to EUR1m for natural persons.

Outlook

The BMF is consulting on the draft bill until 19 November 2026. Following the consultation, the Federal Government may adopt a government bill (Regierungsentwurf) before the end of 2026. The legislative process would then continue through the Bundestag and Bundesrat. All amendments contained in the 19-article amending act are currently intended to enter into force on 10 July 2027, coinciding with the date on which the new EU AML framework will become applicable.

The draft bill empowers the BMF to further specify by way of an ordinance the circumstances in which obliged entities carrying out financial activities only occasionally or on a very limited scale may be exempted from the scope of the AML requirements pursuant to Article 6 AMLR. Such exemptions would be subject to a low money laundering and terrorist financing risk and quantitative and qualitative safeguards, including limits on individual transactions and the overall share of the relevant financial activity in the entity's annual turnover. This mechanism may therefore provide greater clarity on the practical boundaries of the AMLR for businesses whose financial activities are merely ancillary to their principal business. It remains to be seen, however, whether the BMF will make use of this option and adopt such an ordinance by the time the new legislation enters into force.