Planned since 2021: Is the central asset register for all EU citizens coming?

EU Asset Register – what is really behind it?

The reality is more nuanced: Since 2021, there has in fact been a political project for a European asset data infrastructure (“EU asset registry”) — but so far no adopted EU regulation that introduces a central, complete asset register for all citizens. Instead, the following exist:

• a comprehensive feasibility study by the EU Commission (published in 2024), feasibility study 2024;
• an already adopted EU anti-money laundering package (AMLR, AMLA regulation, etc.) with obligations to aggregate information on certain assets and high-value goods, AML measures 2023;
• and an ongoing political and societal debate about the purpose, limits, and risks of a comprehensive asset register. Delors policy brief

The following provides an overview along the requested points – including an honest assessment of how likely such a system is to be implemented and who would be most affected by it in practice.

Who initiated the EU asset register?

Political origin in the European Parliament

The first concrete step was not a “secret plan of the EU Commission” but an official mandate from the European Parliament: On 3 December 2021, the Commission put a feasibility study out to tender. This parliamentary question 2024 shows that the mandate was explicitly initiated by the Parliament.

The project was awarded to a consortium led by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). The idea was supported by NGOs and think tanks — such as the Delors Centre — which advocated transparency and asset oversight as tools against tax evasion, money laundering, and corruption.

Role of the EU Commission and the new authority

The EU Commission took on the mandate and carried out the study — but emphasizes that this does not constitute an obligation to actually introduce a register at a later stage.

With the new legal framework in the area of anti-money laundering, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) was created, partly as a central supervisory and coordinating authority for the Member States. Many commentators see AMLA as a potential technical hub — at least for register-based data queries.

What would an EU asset register contain?

Scenarios in the feasibility study

According to the official study from July 2024, three different scenarios are examined — with different intensities and technical scopes. This asset registry study distinguishes:

• Scenario 1: New national registers for specific types of assets — and linking them at EU level.
• Scenario 2: Existing national registers are interconnected via a central EU access portal.
• Scenario 3: Actual creation of a central, EU-wide asset register.

According to the study, asset types that frequently play a role in money laundering, tax evasion, or complex financial structures are considered “relevant”: This overview of possible asset types mentions bank accounts, securities accounts, real estate and land, corporate shareholdings, high-value goods (yachts, aircraft, luxury cars, art), crypto assets, precious metals, and safe deposit boxes.

What already exists?

Even today, there are certain registers and registration obligations at EU level or in many Member States that are seen as building blocks of a larger system. These include transparency or beneficial ownership registers (for beneficial owners of companies and foundations), account registers or access for authorities to account and transaction data, land registers, company and commercial registers, securities accounts, etc.

New — and part of the anti-money laundering package adopted in 2023/2024 — are extended reporting obligations for certain high-value goods. In the public debate, these changes are sometimes described as a “covert asset register”, even though no unified register exists in legal terms.

Purpose: What is it all for?

Officially, three main objectives are stated:

• Combating money laundering and terrorist financing: In cases of suspicion, authorities should be able to obtain easier and cross-border access to relevant asset data.
• Combating tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance: Disclosure and transparency are intended to make assets visible that are concealed via offshore structures or complicated company constructs.
• Enforcement of sanctions and confiscation of illegal assets: Especially in times of crisis — for example sanctions against oligarchs, corruption or organised crime — an EU-wide overview of assets is meant to help locate, freeze, or confiscate assets. The Delors brief 2022 explicitly refers to this.

However, some commentators warn that in the medium to long term the whole framework could become the basis for new wealth or special taxes — such as a “burden equalisation 2.0” or an instrument for wealth levies.

Status at the end of 2025: Where do we really stand?

Feasibility study completed, but no draft law

The feasibility study was published in July 2024. The asset registry study 2024 makes it clear that it is an assessment — not a law.

In its reply to a parliamentary question, the Commission explicitly pointed out that the study does not imply an automatic political decision — and that a central EU asset register was not part of the AML legislative package presented in 2021.

AMLR and AMLA adopted — but no “mega register”

With the new legislative package on combating money laundering, the European Parliament adopted stricter rules in 2023/2024: including a new anti-money laundering regulation (AMLR), a directive, and the establishment of AMLA. The AML package 2023 defines reporting obligations, transparency rules, and extends the circle of obliged entities.

AMLA began its operations in 2025 and is gradually expected to play a central role in overseeing and coordinating the EU’s anti-money laundering efforts. “AMLA operational 2025” points this out.

Conclusion on the current status: There is (still) no adopted EU asset register — but there is a growing infrastructure of registers and reporting obligations pointing towards more intensive collection and monitoring of asset data.

Criticism of the EU asset register

Data protection, fundamental rights, and risks of abuse

Most criticisms concern fundamental rights and data protection: A central overview of a person’s entire assets would be a serious encroachment on privacy and property rights — especially in connection with sensitive data such as real estate, accounts, shareholdings, or art. Critics warn of abuse: unauthorised access (hackers, insiders), political misuse, or later use for wealth taxation or even expropriation. The TAE statement 2024 highlights these risks.

From a technical and administrative point of view, a comprehensive asset register would also be an enormous undertaking: different national register structures, legal systems, and languages; valuation of illiquid assets such as art, private companies, or collections; constant updating and correct linking — all of this increases effort, costs, and susceptibility to errors. The feasibility study already describes a complete central register for all asset classes in the EU as “operationally hardly realistic” and “legally highly problematic”. The study report 2024 states exactly that.

How likely is it that an EU asset register will actually be introduced?

A distinction needs to be made between

• a narrow, technical and administrative register network (linking existing registers, high-value asset reporting, AMLA data hub),
• and a maximalist “total asset register” for all citizens and all types of assets stored at EU level.

Assessment (personal evaluation, not an official forecast):

• Technical register network focusing on high-risk assets: In the medium term (up to around 2030) rather likely — roughly estimated in the range of 60–70%.
• Complete EU asset register for all citizens and all assets: In the short to medium term rather unlikely — in view of legal and technical hurdles as well as the results of the feasibility study probably a maximum of 20–30% in the next few years.

This assessment is based on the current situation (study, AML package, political debate). Depending on the political climate — for example financial crises, major corruption scandals, or public debt — the pace could, however, accelerate or slow down again.

Will an asset register ultimately hit “the little people” the hardest?

Who the register is officially supposed to cover

Officially, the focus is on large, potentially concealed assets: offshore structures, complex corporate constructs, shareholdings, real estate, assets abroad — in other words, wealthy individuals who often circumvent the reach of transparency rules. The Delors brief explicitly states this.

The legislative package also defines thresholds and criteria — for example reporting obligations for high-value goods and for persons with beneficial ownership. The AML decision 2024 describes how transparency registers and access to ownership data are being reorganised.

Why others may be affected in practice — and who might slip through the net

Experience with existing anti-money laundering and transparency rules shows: compliance and reporting obligations often burden not only high earners but also medium or smaller assets — via bureaucracy, banking processes, and institutions’ risk models. Some commentators therefore see a risk that savers with small or medium-sized assets and the middle class may be indirectly more affected than the super-rich. This Estably commentary warns of precisely this distributional effect.

Large fortunes — e.g. company ownership, shareholdings, real estate portfolios — often have options for concealment or circumvention: trusts, holding companies, foreign companies, nested structures. Even with a register, these may be difficult or impossible to capture. Accordingly, the probability is high (estimated at around 60–80%) that a significant share of large fortunes will be recorded only incompletely or not at all — while the new obligations could already be clearly felt by small savers.

EU asset register: implementation uncertain

The EU asset register is currently more a project and subject of debate than a reality. With the AML package, the new AMLA authority, and a growing infrastructure of registers and reporting obligations, the EU is building a foundation that could in future enable authorities to better track asset structures — especially large and cross-border assets.

Whether this will result in a complete, central register of all assets of all citizens is currently doubtful for legal, technical, and political reasons. A more realistic scenario is a gradual expansion and interlinking of individual registers — an “asset data network” rather than a single mega-database.

For the political debate, the crucial questions remain:

• How will fundamental rights and data protection be protected in concrete terms?
• Who will have access — only law enforcement authorities or also tax authorities, social services, and possibly further bodies in the future?
• How can it be prevented that, in practice, the rules primarily affect those who are least able to defend themselves — and not those at whom they are actually aimed?

The answers to these questions will determine whether an asset register will be accepted as a legitimate tool against financial crime — or perceived as yet another step towards the “transparent citizen”.