The guidance suggests that banks and payment providers will come under pressure to increase scrutiny of cryptocurrency companies when considering customer relationships, despite concerns that the blockchain industry is losing traditional funding channels. Under existing guidelines, national authorities are required to collect information on individual economic sectors to inform their assessment of money laundering threats. This includes the types of clients they have, and their links to domestic and foreign financial crime. To that list, the draft suggests, should be added an "assessment of (infrastructure) technologies that are prevalent in the industry, particularly where they are critical to the industry's business model and operations (such as distributed ledger technology)."
The Transfer of Funds Regulation, a new EU regulation designed to ensure that participants in cryptocurrency transactions are identified, is due to be voted on in April, while the bloc's banking regulators are already working to develop how to enforce these laws. Supervisors should follow existing "appropriate" procedures for banks when vetting senior staff at cryptocurrency firms, even under the landmark new licensing rules contained in the European Union's Market Regulation in Cryptoassets (MiCA), the guidance said. before it takes effect.
