New amendments to the law on the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing

Law no. 86/2025, amending and supplementing Law no. 129/2019 on the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing, entered into force on 26 May 2025, thereby introducing a number of important changes, such as new obligations on companies in terms of knowing their clients, legitimate interest requirements with respect to data requests regarding the beneficial owners of companies and a strengthening of protections on the professional secrecy of lawyers.

In terms of the know-your-customer measures, the following new obligations have been introduced:

• In real estate transactions, the real estate agent is to apply know-your-customer measures to both the prospective seller and the prospective buyer of the real estate
• Casinos are obliged to identify all transactions carried out by customers in the casino and to link them to the customer profiles established following the application of know-your-customer measures
• Foreign exchange offices are obliged to apply standard know-your-customer measures in the case of transactions of EUR 2,000 (RON equivalent) or more, regardless of whether the transaction is carried out through a single operation or several linked operations
• Crypto service providers are obliged to apply the standard measures in the case of transactions of EUR 1,000 (RON equivalent) or more, regardless of whether the transaction is carried out through a single operation or several linked operations

Changes have also been made to the regime governing non-governmental organisations (NGOs), such that the National Office for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering (ONPCSB) is to supervise the activity carried out by associations and foundations on a risk basis and to identify types of entities vulnerable to misuse in terms of terrorist financing. Therefore, upon request, NGOs will need to provide the ONPCSB with the information required to fulfil its legal obligations.

The protection of lawyers’ professional secrecy has also been strengthened, as follows:

• The provision according to which professional secrecy becomes opposable to the ONPCSB has been expressly maintained, in the sense that the legal provisions continue to protect the lawyer against any request that would violate the confidentiality of the relationship with the client
• The provision whereby lawyers apply Law no. 129/2019 in compliance with the provisions of Law no. 51/1995 on the organisation and practice of the legal profession has been retained, thus guaranteeing that the obligations introduced by the legislation on the prevention and combating of money laundering cannot annul or relativise the lawyer’s obligation of confidentiality
• In order to avoid the use of general phrases in the risk assessments performed as a basis for granting access to confidential data, it has been clarified that national money laundering risk assessments must be carried out in compliance with professional secrecy norms, as per the conditions provided for by law

Another important change concerns the need to demonstrate a legitimate interest when requesting data on beneficial owners of companies and NGOs with all registers that provide such data, not just that of trusts. This follows the finding by the Court of Justice of the European Union that public access to beneficial ownership information constitutes a serious interference with fundamental rights in terms of respect for private life and the protection of personal data.

In light of this change, the National Office of the Trade Register has announced the temporary suspension, as of 26 May 2025, of the service providing information about beneficial owners from the Register of Beneficial Owners.

Source: Law no. 86/2025, amending and supplementing Law no. 129/2019 on the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as amending and supplementing certain normative acts, and a Communication dated 27 May 2025 published on the website of the National Office of the Trade Register regarding the temporary suspension of the service providing information on beneficial owners