Compliance & Standards
Ireland National AML/CFT/CPF Strategy 2026
Ireland's whole-of-government strategy for money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing over 2026-2030, issued by the Anti-Money Laundering Steering Committee chaired by the Department of Finance. It anchors policy to the 2026 National Risk Assessment, which rates the overall ML threat as Moderate (driven by drug offences and fraud) and TF and PF threats as Low. The framework rests on three pillars: policy and oversight, safeguarding and monitoring, and investigation and enforcement, underpinned by the Criminal Justice Act 2010, EU directives and FATF standards. Five strategic goals cover national coordination, risk assessment, the regulatory framework, capacity building and international cooperation. Concrete actions include transposing the EU's 6th AML Directive, expanding beneficial ownership registers and a Legal Entity Identifier requirement for Section 110 entities, extending the Travel Rule to crypto via MiCA/TFR, gambling-sector closed-loop payments, sanctions mechanisms, and preparation for Ireland's 2028 FATF Mutual Evaluation.
Raf's lens
I keep coming back to the execution plumbing: BARIS interconnection, LEIs on special purpose entities, closed-loop gambling payments, and better FIU tooling for suspicious transaction reports. Those controls will decide whether the EU single rulebook works in practice. The crypto and AI provisions are still thin, but they show where Irish supervision is heading before the 2028 FATF review.
Topics: AML/CFT, Ireland, proliferation financing, National Risk Assessment, 6AMLD transposition, beneficial ownership, FATF Mutual Evaluation, EU AML Authority