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Assessments of the state of supervisory convergence

1. The Authority shall perform periodic assessments of some or all of the activities of one, several, or all financial supervisors, as well as of their tools and resources. As part of each assessment, the Authority shall assess the extent to which a financial supervisor performs its tasks in accordance with Directive (EU) 2024/1640 and takes the necessary steps to ensure consistent high-level supervisory standards and practices. The assessments shall take into account the level of harmonisation of supervisory approaches and, to that end, shall include a review of the application of all or part of the AML/CFT supervisory methodology developed pursuant to Article 8, and it shall cover all financial supervisors in a single assessment cycle. The Executive Board shall adopt, after consulting the General Board in supervisory composition, an assessment cycle plan. The General Board, acting by a majority of two thirds of its members, may require the Executive Board to adopt a new plan. The length of each assessment cycle shall be determined by the Authority and shall not exceed seven years. The Authority shall develop methods to allow for a consistent assessment of, and comparison between, the financial supervisors reviewed in the same cycle. At the end of each assessment cycle, the Authority shall submit its findings to the European Parliament and to the Council.

2. The assessments shall be carried out by the staff of the Authority and, following an open call for participation, by the staff of financial supervisors that are not subject to review, on a voluntary basis. Where relevant, the assessments shall take due account of the evaluations, assessments or reports drawn up by international organisations and intergovernmental bodies with competence in the field of ML/TF prevention. The assessments may also take due account of the information set out in the central AML/CFT database established pursuant to Article 11.

3. The Authority shall produce a report setting out the results of each assessment. A draft version of the report shall be submitted to the financial supervisor subject to the assessment for comments, prior to its consideration by the General Board in supervisory composition. Within a deadline determined by the Authority, the financial supervisor subject to the assessment shall submit comments to the draft report. The final report shall be adopted by the Executive Board, taking into account the observations of the General Board in supervisory composition. The Executive Board shall ensure consistency in the application of the assessment methodology. The report shall explain and indicate any specific follow-up measures required to be taken by the financial supervisor subject to the assessment that are deemed appropriate, proportionate and necessary as a result of the assessment. The follow-up measures may be adopted in the form of guidelines and recommendations of the General Board. The follow-up measures may also be adopted in the form of individual recommendations taken by the Executive Board. Those individual follow-up measures shall only be published upon the consent of the financial supervisor concerned and only in summary or aggregate form, such that individual financial institutions cannot be identified. The published version of the report shall not include confidential information nor references to specific financial supervisors.

4. Financial supervisors shall make every effort to comply with the specific follow-up measures addressed to them as a result of the assessment. Where applicable, financial supervisors shall provide regular updates to the Authority regarding the type of measures that they have implemented in response to the report referred to in paragraph 3.