Regulation (EU) 2018/1672 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on controls on cash entering or leaving the Union and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1889/2005

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation provides for a system of controls with respect to cash entering or leaving the Union to complement the legal framework for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing laid down in Directive (EU) 2015/849.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(a) ‘cash’ means: (i) currency; (ii) bearer-negotiable instruments; (iii) commodities used as highly-liquid stores of value; (iv) prepaid cards;

(b) ‘entering or leaving the Union’ means coming from a territory which is outside the territory covered by Article 355 TFEU to the territory which is covered by that Article, or departing the territory covered by that Article;

(c) ‘currency’ means banknotes and coins that are in circulation as a medium of exchange or that have been in circulation as a medium of exchange and can still be exchanged through financial institutions or central banks for banknotes and coins that are in circulation as a medium of exchange;

(d) ‘bearer-negotiable instruments’ means instruments other than currency which entitle their holders to claim a financial amount upon presentation of the instruments without having to prove their identity or entitlement to that amount. Those instruments are: (i) traveller’s cheques; and (ii) cheques, promissory notes or money orders that are either in bearer form, signed but with the payee’s name omitted, endorsed without restriction, made out to a fictitious payee, or otherwise in such form that title thereto passes upon delivery;

(e) ‘commodity used as a highly-liquid store of value’ means a good, as listed in point 1 of Annex I, that presents a high ratio between its value and its volume and that can easily be converted into currency through accessible trading markets while incurring only modest transaction costs;

(f) ‘prepaid card’ means a non-nominal card, as listed in point 2 of Annex I, that stores or provides access to monetary value or funds which can be used for payment transactions, for acquiring goods or services or for the redemption of currency where such card is not linked to a bank account;

(g) ‘competent authorities’ means the customs authorities of the Member States and any other authorities empowered by the Member States to apply this Regulation;

(h) ‘carrier’ means any natural person entering or leaving the Union carrying cash on their person, in their luggage or in their means of transport;

(i) ‘unaccompanied cash’ means cash making up part of a consignment without a carrier;

(j) ‘criminal activity’ means any of the activities listed in point (4) of Article 3 of Directive (EU) 2015/849;

(k) ‘Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)’ means the entity established in a Member State for the purposes of implementing Article 32 of Directive (EU) 2015/849.

Article 3

Obligation to declare accompanied cash

The declaration referred to in paragraph 1 shall provide details about the following:

(a) the carrier, including full name, contact details, including address, date and place of birth, nationality and identification document number;

(b) the owner of the cash, including the full name, contact details, including address, date and place of birth, nationality and identification document number, where the owner is a natural person, or the full name, contact details, including address, registration number and, where available, value added tax (VAT) identification number, where the owner is a legal person;

(c) where available, the intended recipient of the cash, including the full name, contact details, including address, date and place of birth, nationality and identification document number, where the intended recipient is a natural person, or the full name, contact details, including address, registration number and, where available, VAT identification number, where the intended recipient is a legal person;

(d) the nature and the amount or value of the cash;

(e) the economic provenance of the cash;

(f) the intended use of the cash;

(g) the transport route; and

(h) the means of transport.

Article 4

Obligation to disclose unaccompanied cash

The disclosure declaration shall provide details about the following:

(a) the declarant, including full name, contact details, including address, date and place of birth, nationality and identification document number;

(b) the owner of the cash, including the full name, contact details, including address, date and place of birth, nationality and identification document number, where the owner is a natural person, or full name, contact details, including address, registration number and, where available, the VAT identification number, where the owner is a legal person;

(c) the sender of the cash, including the full name, contact details, including address, date and place of birth, nationality and identification document number, where the sender is a natural person, or the full name, contact details, including address, registration number and where available, VAT identification number, where the sender is a legal person;

(d) the recipient or intended recipient of the cash, including the full name, contact details, including address, date and place of birth, nationality and identification document number, where the recipient or intended recipient is a natural person, or the full name, contact details, including address, registration number and, where available, VAT identification number, where the recipient or intended recipient is a legal person;

(e) the nature and the amount or value of the cash;

(f) the economic provenance of the cash; and

(g) the intended use of the cash.

Article 5

Powers of the competent authorities

Article 6

Sub-threshold amounts suspected to be related to criminal activity

Article 7

Temporary detention of cash by competent authorities

The competent authorities may temporarily detain cash by means of an administrative decision in accordance with the conditions laid down in national law where:

(a) the obligation to declare accompanied cash under Article 3 or the obligation to disclose unaccompanied cash under Article 4 has not been fulfilled; or

(b) there are indications that the cash, irrespective of the amount, is related to criminal activity.

The administrative decision referred to in paragraph 1 shall be subject to an effective remedy in accordance with procedures provided for in national law. The competent authorities shall notify a statement of reasons for the administrative decision to:

(a) the person required to make the declaration in accordance with Article 3 or the disclosure declaration in accordance with Article 4; or

(b) the person required to provide the information in accordance with Article 6(1) or (2).

Where no determination is made regarding further detention of the cash within that period or if a determination is made that the circumstances of the case do not warrant further detention, the cash shall be immediately released to:

(a) the person from whom the cash was temporarily detained in the situations referred to in Article 3 or 4; or

(b) the person from whom the cash was temporarily detained in the situations referred to in Article 6(1) or (2).

Article 8

Information campaigns

Member States shall ensure that persons who enter or leave the Union or persons who send unaccompanied cash from the Union or who receive unaccompanied cash in the Union are informed of their rights and obligations under this Regulation and shall, in cooperation with the Commission, develop appropriate materials aimed at those persons.

Member States shall ensure that sufficient funding is made available for such information campaigns.

Article 9

Provision of information to the FIU

Article 10

Exchange of information between competent authorities and with the Commission

The competent authority of each Member State shall, by electronic means, transmit the following information to the competent authorities of all the other Member States:

(a) ex officio declarations composed under Article 5(3);

(b) information obtained under Article 6;

(c) declarations obtained under Article 3 or 4, where there are indications that the cash is related to criminal activity;

(d) anonymised risk information and risk analysis results.

Article 11

Exchange of information with third countries

For the purpose of this Regulation, Member States or the Commission may, within the framework of mutual administrative assistance, transmit the following information to a third country, subject to the written authorisation of the competent authority which originally obtained the information, provided that such transmission complies with the relevant national and Union law on the transfer of personal data to third countries:

(a) ex officio declarations composed under Article 5(3);

(b) information obtained under Article 6;

(c) declarations obtained under Article 3 or 4, where there are indications that the cash is related to money laundering or terrorist financing.

Article 12

Professional secrecy and confidentiality and data security

Article 13

Personal data protection and retention periods

The period of retention may be extended once by another period which shall not exceed three additional years if:

(a) after it has carried out a thorough assessment of the necessity and proportionality of such further retention and considers it to be justified for the fulfilment of its tasks with respect to the fight against money laundering or terrorist financing, the FIU determines that further retention is required; or

(b) after they have carried out a thorough assessment of the necessity and proportionality of such further retention and consider it to be justified for the fulfilment of their tasks with respect to providing effective controls as regards the obligation to declare accompanied cash or the obligation to disclose unaccompanied cash, competent authorities determine that further retention is required.

Article 14

Penalties

Each Member State shall introduce penalties which shall apply in the event of failure to comply with the obligation to declare accompanied cash laid down in Article 3 or the obligation to disclose unaccompanied cash laid down in Article 4. Such penalties shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

Article 15

Exercise of the delegation

Article 16

Implementing acts

The Commission shall adopt, by means of implementing acts, the following measures to ensure the uniform application of controls by competent authorities:

(a) the templates for the declaration form referred to in Article 3(3) and for the disclosure form referred to in Article 4(3);

(b) the criteria for the common risk management framework referred to in Article 5(4) and, more specifically, the risk criteria, standards, and priority control areas, based on the information exchanged pursuant to point (d) of Article 10(1), and Union and international policies and best practice;

(c) the technical rules for the effective exchange of information under Article 9(1) and (3) and Article 10 of this Regulation via the CIS established by Article 23 of Regulation (EC) No 515/97;

(d) the template for the form for the transmission of information referred to in Article 10(3); and

(e) the rules and the format to be used by Member States for providing to the Commission with anonymised statistical information on declarations and infractions pursuant to Article 18.

Article 17

Committee procedure

Article 18

Transmission of information relating to the implementation of this Regulation

By 4 December 2021, Member States shall transmit the following to the Commission:

(a) the list of competent authorities;

(b) the details of the penalties introduced pursuant to Article 14;

(c) anonymised statistical information regarding declarations, controls and infractions, using the format referred to in point (e) of Article 16(1).

The information referred to in point (c) of paragraph 1 shall be provided to the Commission at least every six months.

Article 19

Evaluation

The report referred to in the first subparagraph shall, in particular, evaluate whether:

(a) other assets should be included within the scope of this Regulation;

(b) the disclosure procedure for unaccompanied cash is effective;

(c) the threshold for unaccompanied cash should be reviewed;

(d) the information flows in accordance with Articles 9 and 10 and the use of the CIS, in particular, are effective or whether there are obstacles to the timely and direct exchange of compatible and comparable information between competent authorities and with FIUs; and

(e) the penalties introduced by Member States are effective, proportionate and dissuasive and in line with the established case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and whether they have an equivalent deterrent effect across the Union on the infringement of this Regulation.

The report referred to in paragraph 1 shall include, where available:

(a) a compilation of information received from Member States regarding cash related to criminal activities which adversely affect the financial interests of the Union; and

(b) information on exchange of information with third countries.

Article 20

Repeal of Regulation (EC) No 1889/2005

Regulation (EC) No 1889/2005 is repealed.

References to the repealed Regulation shall be construed as references to this Regulation and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table in Annex II.

Article 21

Entry into force and application

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 3 June 2021. However, Article 16 shall apply from 2 December 2018.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

ANNEX I

Commodities used as highly-liquid stores of value and prepaid cards which are considered cash in accordance with point (a)(iii) and (iv) of Article 2(1)

1.Commodities used as highly-liquid stores of value:

(a) coins with a gold content of at least 90 %; and

(b) bullion such as bars, nuggets or clumps with a gold content of at least 99,5 %.

2.Prepaid cards: P.M.

ANNEX II

Regulation (EC) No 1889/2005	This Regulation
Article 1	Article 1
Article 2	Article 2
Article 3	Article 3
—	Article 4
Article 4(1)	Article 5
Article 5(2)	Article 6
Article 4(2)	Article 7
—	Article 8
Article 5(1)	Article 9
Article 6	Article 10
Article 7	Article 11
Article 8	Article 12
—	Article 13
Article 9	Article 14
—	Article 15
—	Article 16
—	Article 17
—	Article 18
Article 10	Article 19
—	Article 20
Article 11	Article 21
—	Annex I
—	Annex II