Connect with us

Economy

Council agrees negotiating mandate to clean up crypto-asset transfers

SHARE:

Published

5 years ago

on

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. You can unsubscribe at any time.

EU ambassadors have agreed (1 December) on a mandate to negotiate with the European Parliament on a proposal to update existing rules on information accompanying transfers of funds. The update aims to extend the scope of the rules to certain crypto-assets.

“Today’s agreement is an important step towards closing the gaps in our financial systems that are malevolently used by criminals to launder unlawful gains or finance terrorist activities,” Andrej Šircelj, Slovenian Minister for Finance. “Crypto-assets are more and more at risk of being exploited for money laundering and criminal purposes, and I’m glad the Council could make swift progress on this urgent proposal.”

The aim of the proposal is to introduce an obligation for crypto-asset service providers to collect and make accessible full information about the sender and beneficiary of the transfers of virtual or crypto assets they operate. This is what payment service providers currently do for wire transfers. With traceability crypto-asset transfers, it will be easier to identify and block suspicious transactions.

The Council wants to include crypto-asset transfers between crypto-asset service providers and un-hosted wallets, wants a full set of originator information for the crypto-asset transfer, regardless of the transaction amount. Given the urgent need to ensure traceability of crypto-asset transfers, the Council in its position aims to synchronise the application of the proposal on transfer of funds and the market in crypto-assets regulation (MiCA).

This proposal is part of a package of legislative proposals to strengthen the EU's anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing (AML/CFT) rules, presented by the Commission on 20 July 2021.

Share this article:

Share this:
Related Topics:
EU Reporter publishes articles from a variety of outside sources which express a wide range of viewpoints. The positions taken in these articles are not necessarily those of EU Reporter. Please see EU Reporter’s full Terms and Conditions of publication for more information EU Reporter embraces artificial intelligence as a tool to enhance journalistic quality, efficiency, and accessibility, while maintaining strict human editorial oversight, ethical standards, and transparency in all AI-assisted content. Please see EU Reporter’s full A.I. Policy for more information.
Advertisement

Trending