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The EU opened a new chapter in the fight against financial crime in Europe on Thursday by picking Frankfurt, Germany’s financial hub, as host city for a planned bloc-wide anti-money laundering supervisor.

The Anti-Money Laundering Authority, or AMLA, is the centerpiece of sweeping AML reforms designed to strengthen and harmonize rules against illicit finance across the bloc, and from 2026 onwards will directly supervise 40 high-risk, cross-border financial institutions, monitor AML supervision by national regulators and serve as a financial intelligence hub.

Germany won in a competition with eight other nations—Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria and Ireland—that had also applied to host the agency, which will also monitor financial institutions for compliance with EU sanctions under a governance framework agreed in December.