Cheers in Frankfurt, Wiesbaden and Berlin: the planned European anti-money laundering authority will be based in Frankfurt. "Deal!", announced the Belgian EU Council Presidency at 7.40 pm on Thursday. After weeks of showcasing and many discussions in the background with other national governments and MEPs, the EU Parliament and EU Council have awarded the city on the River Main the contract for the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA). In the decisive meeting, the majority of the 54 votes in total (27 MEPs and 27 representatives of the national governments) were in favour of Frankfurt.

The Belgian EU Presidency announced that the authority would begin its work in mid-2025. The decision was "a great honour for Frankfurt as a financial centre", commented CSU MEP Markus Ferber on the decision. The proximity to ECB banking supervision was "an unbeatable advantage". Green MEP Rasmus Andresen described the vote as a "leap of faith so that Germany can catch up with other member states in the fight against money laundering".

By the afternoon, it had already become clear that Frankfurt had a good chance of winning the bid. In a separate meeting of the 27 representatives of the national governments, Frankfurt came out on top in the first vote, far ahead of Paris, Rome and Vilnius in Lithuania. As the permanent representatives had already agreed in advance to pool all their votes and jointly support the city that was ahead in their separate vote, Frankfurt had half the votes in its favour at the start of the decisive joint meeting with the MEPs – at least in theory, as the subsequent vote was held in secret, and it could therefore not be ruled out that a national representative would deviate from the joint agreement.

According to diplomats, the German government, the Hessian state government and the city of Frankfurt had campaigned aggressively with EU partners and MEPs in favour of the location on the Main in the current case and held many talks to gain votes – unlike the decision on the headquarters of the EU banking supervisory authority a few years ago, which ultimately ended up in Paris. In addition, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner had promised a contribution of at least 20 million euros for the initial equipment of the authority, which will employ more than 400 civil servants. Frankfurt has also already reserved three office buildings so that the new EU authority can move to Frankfurt immediately.