The EU will have a single cryptocurrency regulator

The EU authorities will create a new regulatory body AMLA, which will be entrusted with the direct supervision of crypto business. This is stated in the sixth EU anti-money laundering directive (AMLD6), writes The Block.

The European Commission submitted the relevant bill on July 20, 2022. Earlier, the European Council published its version.

The European Parliament will consider AMLD6 after the August holidays. As soon as the latter approves its version of the bill, the three bodies will enter into a so-called trilogy to finalize its provisions.

The publication believes that the creation of AMLA, which is central to AMLD6, will cause the least controversy. Implementation, including staffing, will take years.

In the versions of the European Council and the European Commission, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority will directly control at least “high-risk” crypto firms.

“A body at the EU level will have the power to directly supervise certain financial institutions and indirectly supervise/coordinate other similar organizations. It will also play a bridging role in the regulation of the non-financial sector,” The Block explained.

The emergence of a supranational body will be a big step forward for the EU, according to the publication. Previous AMLDs, especially the fourth and fifth ones from 2015 and 2018, set standards for member countries to collect and report certain data, such as beneficial ownership of corporations.

The generated registries are a good example of disparate regulations. Even among countries that provide free access to corporate information, the data varies greatly.

Such opacity, in particular, allowed Binance to inform potential clients for several years about the approval of the Maltese regulators for the provision of cryptocurrency services.

AMLD5 has established that member states must treat crypto exchanges as financial institutions. The decision was left to the discretion of the Member States. General reporting requirements did not become the basis for the creation of a single regulator.

Recall that in early July, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament preliminary agreed on the provisions of the MiCA cryptocurrency regulation bill. It describes the rules that apply to issuers of unsecured crypto assets, stablecoins, trading and custodial platforms.

Later, members of the European Green Party and Socialists proposed extending the standards of AML/CFT procedures to decentralized organizations, DeFi sites and NFT platforms.

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