Regulation you actually need to know (2025–2026)

Most regulatory news is irrelevant to your actual banking experience. As of this guide's 2025–2026 review, three developments aren't:

• AMLA is now the EU's AML supervisor. On 1 January 2026, the European Banking Authority and AMLA completed the formal handover of AML/CFT mandates: AMLA inherited the EBA's supervisory tools and now directly supervises the EU's most complex financial institutions. Existing EBA guidelines stay in force until AMLA replaces them, so nothing changes overnight - but centralised supervision generally means more consistent, and stricter, enforcement across the bloc over time.
• Remote onboarding is getting more rigorous, not more lenient. EBA guidance continues pushing banks toward harmonised, stronger identity verification specifically for clients onboarded without an in-person check - which is most of the people this guide is written for.
• CRS and crypto reporting keep expanding. The OECD's Common Reporting Standard is well established for bank and brokerage accounts; the new Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) extends the same automatic-exchange logic to crypto-asset service providers, phasing in by 2027.

The practical translation of all three: "harmonisation" from a regulator's perspective tends to read, from the applicant's side, as more document requests and less tolerance for ambiguity. Expect this trend to continue rather than reverse.

• Before applying or responding to a review, I have checked whether any recently announced rules change what I should prepare.

  Optional context - completing your checklist doesn't depend on this.

These become trackable items in your checklist once your personalized plan is generated.

• Red flags and closure patterns
• Your next step