AMLA

Mission and mandate

AMLA's establishing regulation is Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 of the European Parliament and of the Council ("AMLAR"), part of a broader 2024 AML package that also includes the new EU AML Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 — the AMLR), the recast 6th AML Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/1640 — AMLD6), and the recast Funds Transfer Regulation. Together these texts overhaul the EU's AML/CFT framework after twenty years of patchwork directive-led harmonisation, creating directly applicable rules and an EU-level supervisor for the first time.

AMLA's three operational mandates are: direct supervision of selected obliged entities (estimated 40 cross-border banks, payment institutions, and crypto-asset service providers, selected against criteria in AMLAR Article 13 starting in 2027 with full supervisory powers from 2028); indirect supervision of national AML supervisors via assessments and harmonised technical standards (from operational launch in 2025); and coordination of Financial Intelligence Units across the EU through the FIU support and coordination mechanism.

The Authority's governance is unusual. Its General Board has two configurations — a Supervisory configuration (national AML supervisors plus the European Banking Authority observer) and a FIU configuration (heads of national FIUs). An Executive Board of five permanent members plus a Chair is the day-to-day governance. The Chair was appointed in 2024 and the Executive Director took up post in 2025.

Structure and supervisory directorates

AMLA's organisational design is being built out as the agency staffs up. The intended structure has four operational directorates plus corporate services. Direct Supervision will house the joint supervisory teams (JSTs) for each directly-supervised entity, modelled on the SSM JST design at the ECB; staff will mix AMLA permanent staff with national-supervisor secondees. Indirect Supervision will run thematic reviews, peer reviews, and the harmonised standards program for national supervisors and the financial sector, plus a thematic stream for the non-financial sector (legal professions, real estate, gambling, dealers in high-value goods, crypto-asset service providers under MiCA).

FIU Support and Coordination will operate the FIU.net infrastructure (transferred to AMLA from Europol under the regulation), coordinate joint analyses on cross-border cases, and develop common analytical techniques. Risk and Methodology will produce the AMLA risk assessment, develop common supervisory methodology, and run an early-warning function for emerging typologies. Corporate Services covers HR, finance, procurement, legal, and IT — the latter is large given the data and technology needs of a real-time supervisor.

Geographically the Authority sits in Frankfurt's Westend district near the ECB and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), an explicit choice to anchor financial-sector supervision to a single location. Frankfurt's correction coefficient is 99.2 — close to Brussels parity.

Hiring landscape over the last 12 months

The current snapshot shows 3 active AMLA vacancies — small in absolute terms but high-leverage given that the agency had effectively zero staff a year earlier. By contract type, two are temporary agents and one is a contract agent, all in Frankfurt. By grade, two are AD10 (senior management posts in supervision and communications), and one is FG IV (HR Expert). All three sit in the building-the-organisation phase of recruitment.

The three vacancies in detail: (1) Head of Governance, Strategy and Planning (AD10, TA) — a senior post building out the agency's planning function and reporting to the Executive Director; the role drives the multi-annual work programme and the agency's accountability framework. (2) Head of Communications (AD10, TA) — the agency's first senior communications post, responsible for external messaging in a politically high-profile area where misperceptions about EU supervisory powers are common. (3) Human Resources Expert (FG IV, CA) — a working-level HR post building the agency's HR machinery from scratch.

For candidates the practical implication is that AMLA in 2025–2026 is hiring a disproportionate share of senior posts (Head of Unit, Senior Specialist) and corporate-services foundation posts. The supervisor-track AML and FIU specialist hiring will accelerate sharply through 2026–2027 as the Authority approaches its 2028 direct-supervision start date, with both Head of Unit and Senior Supervisor postings expected. Candidates with EBA, ECB SSM, or national-supervisor AML experience are positioned to be heavily recruited in this wave.

Salary realism by grade and the Frankfurt coefficient

AMLA staff are paid under the EU Staff Regulations like other agencies. Step 1 of the 2024/2025 grid: AD7 €7,876, AD9 €10,083, AD10 €11,408, AD12 €14,604; FG IV €4,449. The Frankfurt correction coefficient is 99.2, so AD10 step 1 is approximately €11,316 monthly basic; AD12 step 1 is approximately €14,487; FG IV step 1 is approximately €4,413.

Layer on the standard allowances. Expatriation (16%) applies to candidates who did not reside in Germany for the five years prior to recruitment subject to nationality conditions; foreign-residence (4%) applies for residents-but-non-nationals on different terms. Household allowance (~2% + a fixed amount) applies to married staff or staff with dependents, and dependent-child allowance applies per child. Frankfurt has a comparatively expensive private rental market — family-sized housing in Westend, Sachsenhausen, or the surrounding suburbs typically runs €2,200–€3,500/month — comparable to Brussels but with a higher cost of groceries and services.

For candidates moving from EBA in Paris (115.8) or from the ECB SSM in Frankfurt itself, the AMLA package is broadly comparable; for candidates moving from member-state supervisors with national pay scales, the AD9–AD12 packages typically represent a meaningful uplift. AMLA also benefits from being co-located with EIOPA — there is informal mobility within the Frankfurt EU-supervisor cluster.

Languages and competition profile

English is the working language of AMLA. Knowledge of a second EU language is the regulatory minimum for AD posts, and German is useful but not required for daily work. Knowledge of additional languages relevant to the directly-supervised entities (e.g. French for ACPR-supervised cross-border banks, Italian for Banca d'Italia-supervised intermediaries, Spanish for Banco de España, Dutch for the Netherlands market, Polish for KNF) is an asset.

AMLA is not staffed via EPSO. All vacancies are advertised directly on the agency's careers portal, with cross-listing on the EU Careers portal. The Authority is recruiting against a competitive landscape — EBA and the ECB SSM are also recruiting in adjacent areas — and several recent senior selections have been from the ECB SSM and the EBA's AML/CFT unit (the latter formally transferred to AMLA in 2025). Candidates with national-FIU experience are heavily recruited for the FIU coordination workstream.

The supervisor track in particular will draw on three complementary pools: ECB SSM joint-supervisory-team alumni (for prudential-AML methodology and joint-supervisory-team practice), national AML supervisors and FIU staff (for sectoral expertise and cross-border investigation experience), and private-sector financial-crime compliance professionals (for typology and front-line know-how). All three are visibly represented in the early hires.

Application paths

Two main routes into AMLA, with a third in development. Temporary agent: respond to a published vacancy notice for AD or AST/SC posts; expect a written test (typically a case study based on a fictional cross-border AML supervisory question or FIU joint analysis) and a panel interview. Most senior and supervisor-track posts will be filled this way; TA contracts at AMLA are typically five years, renewable. Contract agent: register on CAST Permanent and apply to FG III/IV vacancies referencing the CAST pool; the bulk of corporate-services and IT support posts are recruited this way.

A third route — seconded national experts from national AML supervisors or FIUs — is being structured around the joint supervisory team architecture. Member-state authorities will second AML supervisors to AMLA's JSTs for renewable tours, similar to the ECB SSM model. SNE notices for these posts are expected to be published from 2026 onwards.

All AMLA staff must hold an EU Confidential clearance at minimum, with EU SECRET expected for posts handling supervisory data on directly-supervised entities or sensitive FIU material. Candidates carrying recent ECB or EBA clearances typically clear faster.

A timing note for candidates: AMLA's hiring sequence is staged. The 2024–2025 wave focused on senior management posts (Heads of Unit, Senior Policy Officers, Executive Director's office) and corporate-services foundation hiring. The 2026 wave will scale up the indirect-supervision and FIU-coordination workstreams. The 2027–2028 wave will scale up the direct-supervision JSTs as AMLA approaches its supervisory go-live. Candidates with prior AML supervision, FIU coordination, or financial-crime compliance experience should map their target wave against their availability — supervisor-track AD7–AD9 hiring will be most intense in 2026 and 2027.