On May 26, 2025, Law no. 86/2025 ("
Law no. 86/2025") on amending and supplementing Law no. 129/2019 on preventing and combating money laundering and terrorism financing, as well as amending and supplementing certain normative acts ("
Law no. 129/2019") entered into force. This normative deed aims to remedy the deficiencies of the national system regulated by Law no. 129/2019, as identified following the evaluation of the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (Moneyval Committee).
Law no. 86/2025 emphasises the restrictive nature of the legislation in the field of preventing and combating money laundering and terrorism financing, introducing precise, but significant amendments, the most important of which concern:
1. Conditioning the access to the records containing information on the beneficial owners of entities registered in Romania to the justification of a legitimate interest;
2. Extending the period during which certain persons have the legal status of politically exposed person to a period of two years after leaving public office;
3. Extending the legal reporting and disclosure obligations of reporting entities, in particular with regard to the risk-based identification criterion of existing customers in respect of which standard know your client (“KYC”) measures and the obligation to report suspicious transactions should be applied;
4. Imposing new obligations on special categories of reporting entities, such as credit and financial institutions, crypto-asset service providers, real estate agents and casino gambling service providers;
5. Establishing new obligations to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorism financing for associations and foundations, as well as sanctions for non-compliance thereof.
1. Conditional access to public beneficial owners’ records
Law no. 86/2025 restricts access to records containing information on the beneficial owners of legal persons required to be registered in the Trade Registry, of associations and foundations and of trusts or similar legal arrangements. The new rules no longer allow any natural or legal person to have access to these records without justifying a legitimate interest.
The provision could raise concerns in terms of its application, as the new legal provisions do not specify the legitimate interest justifying access to the registers.
2. Prolongation of the legal status of a politically exposed person
According to the amendments introduced by Law no. 86/2026, the period during which certain persons who have fulfilled the conditions to be deemed as politically exposed persons retain this status is extended, after the termination of the public office that determined their consideration as such.
Thus, the law stipulates that in the case of persons who, due to the influence they may exercise as a result of their previous position, continue to present a risk associated with politically exposed persons, their status as a politically exposed person shall cease after two years from the termination of the public office that gave rise to this status.
3. Extending legal reporting and information obligations
Law no. 86/2025 amends the risk-based identification criterion for existing customers with respect to which standard KYC measures are to be applied. Thus, in order to determine the existing customers with respect to which reporting entities must apply standard KYC measures, they must corroborate the identified risk with a new criterion of “materiality”, taking into account the time at which KYC measures were previously applied and their relevance.
In addition, under the new regulation, reporting entities are now also obliged to request information on the effective headquarters of the customers and beneficial owners, if they are legal entities, if the effective headquarters differs from the registered office.
The obligation to report suspicious transactions has also been extended to cases where the reporting entity identifies (i) increased risks, (ii) that a politically exposed person is the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, and (iii) the checks carried out give grounds for suspicion.
According to the new amendments, supporting documents and records of transactions kept by reporting entities in the application of the rules on the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing must not only allow transactions to be identified, but also to be reconstructed.
The reporting entities are now required to carry out a verification process prior to hiring the persons responsible for the application of the legislation in the field of preventing and combating money laundering and terrorism financing.
4. Obligations for special categories of reporting entities
Law no. 86/2025 also introduces a number of amendments applicable to special categories of reporting entities, such as credit and financial institutions, crypto-asset service providers, real estate agents and casino gambling service providers.
Thus, in addition to the previous regulation, credit and financial institutions are prohibited from providing products and services to persons presenting fictitious names, anonymous accounts, anonymous savings books, anonymous safety deposit boxes or anonymous prepaid cards. Credit and financial institutions shall not provide products to persons with fictitious names, anonymous accounts, anonymous passbooks, anonymous savings books or anonymous safes, or services for accepting payment on anonymous prepaid cards.
They also have additional obligations with regard to the launch and use of new products and technologies in terms of the risks associated with them.
Furthermore, crypto-asset service providers are obliged to apply standard KYC measures for all transactions with a value of at least EUR1,000, and exchanges will apply these measures for any transaction above the EUR 2,000 threshold, which are considerably lower value thresholds than those for reporting entities in general.
Real estate agents and casino gambling service providers also have additional KYC obligations compared to the previous regulation. Thus, the new provisions clarify that the real estate agents must apply KYC measures to both the prospective seller and the prospective buyer of the property. Casino gambling service providers are obliged to identify all transactions carried out by customers in the casino and to link them to the customer profile established following the application of the KYC measures.
5. New obligations for associations and foundations
The legislative amendments provide for an intensified supervision of non-profit legal entities registered in Romania by introducing new regulations on these entities.
Thus, according to the Law no. 86/2025, the National Office for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering ("the
Office") will supervise on a risk-based basis the activity of associations and foundations, having the right to request any information necessary for the fulfilment of its legal duties from these entities. In addition, the law requires associations and foundations to implement adequate internal controls to ensure that funds are fully accounted for and spent in accordance with the purpose and objectives of the activity stated in the articles of association, and to take reasonable steps to confirm information about beneficiaries and associated foundations/associations.
The new amendments also provide for the sanctioning of the refusal of an association or a foundation to transmit to the Office, within the deadline provided by law, the information requested by the Office, with a warning or a fine from 10,000 lei to 90,000 lei, these latter provisions coming into force on June 26, 2025.
