AML act adds proliferation-financing controls and testing

Every business and person covered by hvidvaskloven must extend the section 7 risk assessment to the risk of potential breach, non-implementation or circumvention of proliferation-financing obligations against countries, persons, groups, legal entities or bodies, alongside section 34 a(3).Retsinformation Proliferation financing is newly defined in section 4 a: supplying funds or financial services for the manufacture, acquisition, possession, development, export, transhipment, transport, transfer or use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons used for non-legitimate purposes in breach of national legislation or international obligations.Retsinformation

The same obliged circle must hold adequate written policies, procedures and controls covering compliance with financial-sanctions laws and regulations against countries, persons, groups, legal entities or bodies, alongside section 34 a(3).Retsinformation Policies, procedures and controls for proliferation-financing compliance must in addition be built on the section 7 risk assessment, taking the size of the business into account.Retsinformation

Businesses and persons outside the first sentence of section 8(4) — other than their branches, distributors and agents in Denmark — must have their policies, procedures and controls tested by an independent audit function.Retsinformation Where no independent audit function exists, an external expert may carry out the test.

Supervisory reactions under sections 51 and 60 are decided on the material and information available at the time of the investigation and at the close of supervision respectively; later material counts only where special circumstances speak for it.

Finanstilsynet must publish, every six months on its website, an overview of previously published but still uncomplied-with orders issued under the EU regulation on digital operational resilience in the financial sector. Parallel duties sit in section 354 h of the Financial Business Act (with chapter 19 c orders), section 138 a of the Payments Act and section 234 a of the Capital Markets Act. Orders may be left out for IT-security reasons or threats to financial stability. An undertaking named in the overview must place a visible link to it on the front page of its website and may remove the link only once the order is complied with, at the earliest. These publication duties apply only to orders issued after commencement.

The act lets the minister for tax and growth set rules allowing minors to open and control a basic deposit account (basal indlånskonto) without the guardian's consent and to cut off the guardian's control of the account and its information, with authority to derogate from section 1(2) and (3) of the Guardianship Act (værgemålsloven). The costs of a temporary administrator are borne by the bank or mortgage-credit institution concerned.

Criminal penalties for money laundering are raised: the basic maximum in sections 290(1) and 290 a(1) of straffeloven goes from 1 year and 6 months to 3 yearsRetsinformation, with organised offending and offending linked to bribery (§§ 122 and 144) as aggravating factorsRetsinformation, and a new especially-aggravating tier of up to 6 years for section 302 breachesRetsinformation. Courts may no longer accept cash payments or cash deposits of DKK 15,000 or more, whether in one go or in apparently connected instalments (retsplejeloven section 21).Retsinformation

The act was adopted by Folketinget on 3 September 2026Retsinformation and takes effect on 15 September 2026, except section 8 no. 1 and section 16 no. 1Retsinformation, which take effect on 20 November 2026Retsinformation.

Basis: the adopted act amending hvidvaskloven, lov om finansiel virksomhed, lov om betalinger and other statutes (FATF-recommendation compliance, basic deposit accounts for minors, investment-firm supervision), with Erhvervsstyrelsen's guides on risk assessments and written policies under hvidvaskloven sections 7 and 8.