On 1 June 2022, the European Supervisory Authorities (the European Banking Authority – EBA, European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority – EIOPA and European Securities and Markets Authority – ESMA) published a joint report, which provides an analysis on the completeness, adequacy and uniformity of the applicable laws on the withdrawal of a license for serious breaches of the AML/CFT rules. The following points and questions regarding the crypto industry were posed:
- The report highlights the importance of the appropriate integration of AML/CFT issues into prudential regulation and supervision, including in the proposal for a Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA);
- With regard to the personal scope of the project, particularly to ‘providers engaged in exchange services between virtual currencies and fiat currencies and custodian wallet providers’, there was not an agreed-upon answer in terms of who should be the supervisory authority (AML/CFT supervisors, financial intelligence units – FIUs, National Tax and Customs Service or the Financial Crime Investigation Service). In light of these findings, the report highlights the need for MiCA to appropriately integrate AML/CFT issues in prudential supervision of entities to be regulated and supervised under the regime that will be envisaged in that EU Regulation.
