The Anti-Money Laundering Authority’s (AMLA) decision to directly supervise 40 high-risk financial institutions marks a clear shift in how anti-money laundering oversight will operate across the EU. Supervision is becoming more centralised, harmonised and data driven.
While the immediate focus is on those 40 banks, the direction of travel is clear. Regulators want structured, consistent evidence that AML and sanctions controls are embedded within payment processes. As financial crime grows more sophisticated and cross-border flows accelerate, regulators are raising the bar on transparency and auditability at transaction level. For banks outside the initial cohort, this is not a spectator moment, it is a prompt for action.
Stop-gaps are increasing risk down the line
The decision reflects a wider trend around the need for more data. Across ISO 20022, Swift Case Management and sanctions regimes, regulators are demanding richer data and clearer status tracking. It is no longer enough to perform checks in isolation. Banks must be able to demonstrate quickly and consistently that controls have been applied and decisions properly governed.
For institutions relying on legacy infrastructure supported by translation tools and bolt-on workflows, that expectation is becoming more difficult to meet. Translation layers may maintain format compliance, but they don’t solve the structural question of where enhanced compliance data sits, how it is linked to the payment and how easily it can be surfaced for review.
As data mandates evolve, short-term fixes won’t be enough. Banks need infrastructure that embeds compliance directly into the payment lifecycle.
Building a 360-degree view of every payment
Aquila, Aqua Global’s cloud-native messaging hub, sits at the centre of payment orchestration. It enables banks to integrate compliance, workflow and audit into a single, consistent platform.
- Direct integration with AML and sanctions providers – Aquila connects via APIs to a bank’s chosen screening systems, passing payment data automatically and capturing the response in real time. This ensures checks are embedded within the transaction flow, rather than managed as a parallel or manual process.
- Structured capture of status and unique references – Screening responses, status confirmations and unique IDs can be stored as structured fields against the payment record. This allows banks to evidence exactly what check was performed, what the outcome was and which reference applies, without stitching data together across systems.
- End-to-end audit trail and 360-degree payment view – Every action, validation and workflow step is timestamped and visible through a single interface. Compliance and operations teams can see where a payment sits at any time, reducing ambiguity and enabling rapid response to regulatory queries.
- Configurable workflows and dual controls – If a screening response is flagged or requires further review, Aquila can trigger defined workflows, including dual authorisation and escalation paths. Payments cannot progress until required fields are completed and decisions recorded, embedding governance into day-to-day operations.
- Standardised message orchestration across formats – Incoming and outgoing messages are normalised into a logical internal structure, removing dependence on siloed systems or message-type specialists. This consistency reduces operational risk, improves straight-through processing and ensures compliance checks are applied uniformly.
- Consolidation of fragmented tools – Rather than layering translation tools and bespoke add-ons onto legacy platforms, Aquila provides a single modular solution for messaging, compliance integration, reconciliation and exception handling. This reduces architectural complexity and positions banks to adapt more easily as regulatory expectations evolve.
Getting ready now
AMLA’s supervision of 40 institutions is a starting gun for banks. As increased sanctions oversight expands, the ability to evidence compliance at transaction level will become a baseline expectation.
The institutions that move now to embed structured data, integrated screening and auditable workflows into their payment architecture will be better placed to meet that future with confidence.
