On 13 June 2024, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published the package of final draft RTS and Guidelines on own funds, liquidity requirements, and recovery plans under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR). The final draft RTS on additional own funds requirements and stress testing clarify the criteria to assess a ‘higher degree of risk’, the procedure for competent authorities (CAs) to determine the time period deemed appropriate for issuers to increase the own funds amount to the higher own funds requirements, and the measures to ensure timely compliance thereof, and a minimum set of requirements to issuers for the design and implementation of their stress-testing programmes. The final draft RTS concerning the procedure and timeframe for issuers of ‘significant’ asset-referenced tokens (ARTs) or e-money tokens (EMTs) to adjust the amount of their own funds to 3% of the average amount of the reserve of assets, set the timeframe to provide an implementation plan to increase the own funds requirements to 25 working days. To comply with the plan, the CA may grant issuers a period not exceeding 6 months. The final draft RTS specifying the liquidity requirements of the reserve of assets set minimum percentages of the reserve of assets according to daily and weekly maturities, and the minimum amount of deposits in each referenced official currency. The final draft RTS on the highly liquid financial instruments with minimal market risk, credit risk and concentration risk, set the highest quality liquid assets in the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) as eligible highly liquid financial instruments (FIs). For ARTs referencing assets other than official currencies, FIs tracking the value of the assets referenced by the token or derivatives relating to them are also deemed eligible highly liquid FIs. Also, the standards establish concentration limits of highly liquid FIs by issuer. The final draft RTS on the minimum content of the liquidity management policy and procedures specify procedures to identify, measure and manage liquidity risk, a contingency policy, mitigation tools and minimum aspects of liquidity stress testing. The Guidelines on recovery plans illustrate the format and content of the recovery plan that issuers need to develop and maintain, and the content of the communication and disclosure plan. Based on feedback received during the consultation period, a new paragraph was added to clarify that any provision regarding certain requirements applicable to the reserve of assets (certain recovery plan indicators and scenarios) does not apply to issuers of EMTs that are not subject to hold a reserve of assets in line with MiCAR. The final draft RTS will now be submitted to the Commission for endorsement, followed by scrutiny by the European Parliament and the Council, before being published in the EU Official Journal. The Guidelines will apply from 2 months after their publication on the EBA’s website in all EU official languages.
