Opinion of the European Central Bank of 26 February 2026 on prudential supervisory powers in relation to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (CON/2026/7)

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK of 26 February 2026 on prudential supervisory powers in relation to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (CON/2026/7) Introduction and legal basis

On 4 June 2025 the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria adopted a law amending the Law on the measures against the financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the Law on the measures against money laundering (hereinafter the ‘adopted law’). The ECB has decided to deliver an own initiative opinion on the adopted law. The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on Articles 127(4) and 282(5) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, as the adopted law relates to the ECB’s tasks concerning the prudential supervision of credit institutions under Article 127(6) of the Treaty. In accordance with Article 17.5, first sentence, of the Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion.

1. Purpose of the adopted law

1.1 The adopted law amends, inter alia, the Law on the measures against the financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the Law on the measures against money laundering. Both of these laws impose specific obligations for obliged entities, which include credit institutions in Bulgaria . 1.2 The adopted law introduces two parallel provisions, which govern the possible consequences of breaches of these two laws committed by obliged entities . Pursuant to these two provisions, in cases of repeated, severe or systematic breaches of the two laws, the authority competent to withdraw the authorisation or licence of an obliged entity, acting on a proposal by the Chairperson of the State Agency for National Security or by the Minister of the Interior, or on its own initiative, may restrict, suspend or withdraw the licence of the obliged entity.

2. General observation

2.1 The ECB understands that the abovementioned provisions of the adopted law aim to reflect the findings by Moneyval with respect to the powers of relevant authorities to address breaches of antimoney laundering and counter terrorist financing rules, and to achieve full technical compliance with

Recommendation 27 of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) . 2.2 In addition, the ECB understands that the adopted law may have, to some extent, attempted to anticipate the transposition of Directive (EU) 2024/1640 of the European Parliament and of the Council into Bulgarian law. In this regard, the ECB refrains from expressing any opinion on whether and to what extent the adopted law correctly transposes the provisions of this directive. 2.3 The ECB understands that where the adopted law refers to supervisory powers vis-à-vis obliged entities, such as in Article 125 of the Law on the measures against money laundering and Article 18 of the Law on the measures against the financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the adopted law uses general terms as it aims to capture a broad range of obliged entities whose authorisations are governed by various sectoral laws and regulations. As the terminology used in the adopted law may thus not correspond exactly to each of the sectoral laws, the adopted law envisages that the supervisory powers referred to therein must be exercised under the terms and according to the procedure established by the Administrative Procedure Code and the relevant law. Based on this, the ECB understands that the adopted law will be applied and interpreted in accordance with existing sectoral legislation, including legislation governing the prudential supervision of credit institutions and establishing or conferring specific supervisory powers, such as 5 6 for example the Law on credit institutions , as well as Council Regulation (EU) 1024/2013 . The following specific observations aim to set out the ECB’s understanding of several formulations within the adopted law which concern the ECB’s tasks concerning the prudential supervision of credit institutions within the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) under Regulation (EU) 1024/2013.

3. Specific observations

3.1 The powers of the banking supervisor 3.1.1 The adopted law refers to the powers of the authorities which are competent for the authorisation and withdrawal of authorisation of obliged entities to restrict, suspend or withdraw the licences of those obliged entities. Granting authorisations to credit institutions within the Union is regulated primarily under Directive 2013/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council and, for credit institutions established in the Member States participating in the SSM, the ECB has been entrusted

with the exclusive competence to grant and withdraw authorisations . It follows that the adopted law envisages that the banking supervisor responsible for granting and withdrawing authorisations would adopt the relevant supervisory measures. Conversely, the ECB understands that the adopted law does not seek to empower the Chairperson of the State Agency for National Security or the Minister of the Interior to adopt the relevant supervisory measures. 3.1.2 The ECB understands that the adopted law establishes a new, additional procedure for initiating the withdrawal of authorisations in the event of relevant breaches of anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) (AML/CFT) requirements by credit institutions, whereby the Chairperson of the State Agency for National Security or the Minister of the Interior makes a proposal directly to the ECB. The ECB understands that in practice this procedure may also involve the State Agency for National Security or the Ministry of the Interior informally liaising with BNB, given BNB’s mandates in relation to both the prudential and the AML/CFT supervision of credit institutions. This new procedure for proposing the withdrawal of authorisations in the event of relevant breaches of AML/CFT requirements by credit institutions is established in addition to the existing procedure governed by the Law on credit institutions and Regulation (EU) No 468/2014 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2014/17) , whereby BNB, acting upon findings of breaches of AML/CFT requirements may itself submit proposals for the withdrawal of licences to the ECB, without any involvement of the State Agency for National Security or the Ministry of the Interior . 3.2 The power to restrict licences 3.2.1 The adopted law does not clarify the precise scope of the power to restrict licences. In this regard, the Law on credit institutions provides that, in addition to core activities which are always part of the 12 13 licence , a credit institution may also carry out other activities if they are covered by its licence . The Law on credit institutions therefore provides for the possibility for credit institutions to carry out a number of optional activities, subject to a dedicated authorisation by the competent authority . The Law on credit institutions further empowers the competent authority to permanently withdraw a credit institution’s licence, either for all activities, including core activities , or only for some of the optional activities . 3.2.2 It follows that the Law on credit institutions recognises the possibility that a credit institution may maintain its licence, even in the event that its authorisation to perform some of the optional activities included under that licence is withdrawn. The ECB understands that the power to restrict licences under the adopted law refers to this exact situation, where the licence to operate as a credit institution is maintained, but the authorisation for some optional activities is revoked completely and

permanently. This power is inherent in the overall power to withdraw the authorisation of a credit institution, albeit that it applies only in relation to specific optional activities for which authorisation had been granted. 3.2.3 It follows that, irrespective of the terminology used in the adopted law, the power to restrict licences is to be interpreted as being the power to withdraw the authorisation to carry out certain optional activities, while maintaining the licence to operate as a credit institution. For the sake of legal certainty, it is suggested that the adopted law is amended to explicitly reflect this interpretation. 3.2.4 The ECB reiterates that, in order to reflect that in some situations the exclusive power to withdraw authorisations of obliged entities is exercised by authorities other than AML/CFT supervisors and to avoid the duplication of supervisory powers in other situations, it should be clarified that where the powers to withdraw authorisation, or to take another action with respect to the authorisation of an obliged entity, rests with another authority, the AML/CFT supervisors only have the possibility to propose withdrawals or other actions with respect to authorisations, such as restrictions of licences under the adopted law, to the authority that is competent for taking such actions . The ECB recommends that the adopted law is clarified to reflect the specificities stemming from procedures and allocation of competences under Regulation (EU) No 1024/2013. 3.3 The power to suspend licences The adopted law does not clarify the precise scope of the power to suspend an obliged entity’s licence. While Article 56(2), point (f), of Directive (EU) 2024/1640 provides the possibility to suspend an obliged entity’s licence, in the ECB’s understanding such a power would not apply in respect of credit institutions, in view, inter alia, of their specific characteristics under Union legislation concerning the banking sector. As the ECB has previously remarked, Directive 2013/36/EU does not recognise the possibility to suspend authorisation of credit institutions . The adopted law should therefore be amended to clarify that the power to suspend licences does not apply in respect of obliged entities which are credit institutions.

This opinion will be published on EUR-Lex.

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 26 February 2026

[signed]

The President of the ECB

Christine LAGARDE