AI Summary of Article 91a Key function holders and suitability assessment
Entities referred to in Article 91(1) have primary responsibility to ensure key function holders are at all times of sufficiently good repute, act with honesty and integrity and possess sufficient knowledge, skills and experience. Absence of criminal conviction alone is not sufficient. Entities must assess suitability before appointment and periodically, keep suitability information up to date, provide it to competent authorities on request, and where a person is unsuitable must not appoint, remove or take timely measures to ensure suitability, including replacing the key function holder.
Member States shall ensure competent authorities assess that heads of internal control functions and chief financial officers meet those criteria for specified large entities. Competent authorities have powers to prevent appointments, remove officers or require remedial measures, and must reassess on new facts; they may consult AML/CFT supervisors or request access to the central AML/CFT database. By 10 July 2026 EBA shall issue guidelines on good repute, sufficient knowledge/skills/experience and ML/TF suspicion criteria, cooperating with ESMA and the AML Authority.
Article 91a Key function holders and suitability assessment
1. The entities referred to in Article 91(1) shall have the primary responsibility for ensuring that key function holders are at all times of sufficiently good repute, act with honesty and integrity and possess sufficient knowledge, skills and experience necessary to perform their duties. The absence of a criminal conviction or of ongoing prosecutions for a criminal offence shall not in itself be sufficient to fulfil the requirement to be of good repute and act with honesty and integrity.
2. The entities shall ensure that key function holders fulfil at all times the criteria and requirements set out in paragraph 1 and shall assess the suitability of key function holders before they take up their position and periodically, taking into account supervisory expectations, as laid down in applicable laws and regulations, guidelines and internal suitability policies.
3. Where the entities conclude, based on the internal suitability assessment referred to in paragraph 2, that a person does not fulfil the criteria and requirements set out in paragraph 1, the entities shall:
(a) not appoint that person as a key function holder, where that assessment is completed before the person takes up the position;