Debate: Markets in Crypto-assets  - Information accompanying transfers of funds and certain crypto-assets
Date: WEDNESDAY, 19 APRIL 2023
Speaker: Mairead McGuinness
Language: EN

But I want to start by thanking the rapporteurs and to acknowledge the very good cooperation, despite disagreements, to get these files over the line. Let me name Stefan Berger for MiCA, Ernest Urtasun and Assita Kanko for the Transfer of Funds Regulation and, of course, all of the shadow rapporteurs for both files. And I really do want to extend an appreciation for our ECON Chair, Irene Tinagli, who has facilitated this work and, of course, the French Presidency.  We are putting in place comprehensive, tailored rules for crypto-assets in the European Union. No one, I think, in this House questions why these rules are absolutely vital for the financial system. And, as we’ve seen in recent months, stringent rules and supervision are very much needed because we’ve had the collapse of projects such as FTX, Terra Luna, Celsius and Voyager. We’ve seen many retail investors lured in by false promises or false hopes, losing huge amounts of money. And while the crypto market may be too small to trigger systemic risks, we do know that there are increasing links between crypto markets and traditional financial services.  So now to a few elements of our new rules. Firstly, MiCA will bring crypto markets into the regulated space by addressing risks related to consumer protection, market integrity and financial stability. It will also provide legal certainty for market participants that will be able to continue to innovate in a safe environment.  Secondly, it will introduce rules to prevent market abuse of crypto markets such as market manipulation. And we’re bringing crypto asset service providers into the scope of anti-money laundering rules.  Third, under MiCA, crypto-asset service providers like wallet providers or exchangers that serve EU customers will have to be established in the EU and they will be authorised and supervised by national supervisory authorities. MiCA will allow EU-authorised crypto-asset service providers to passport their services throughout the European Union. In return, these operators will be subject to stringent prudential and conduct rules, in addition to rules against insider trading and market manipulation. Crypto-asset service providers will also have to disclose the environmental impact of crypto-assets they offer to customers.  Fourth, the transfer of funds will require all crypto-asset service providers recognised under MiCA to include information about the sender and beneficiary with crypto-asset transfers. This is in full compliance with the Financial Action Task Force international standards on crypto-assets.  Overall, we’re putting safeguards in place that would prevent companies active on the EU market from engaging in some of the practices that led certain crypto-asset operators to collapse in recent months.  After your vote tomorrow, we hope final Council approval and the final signature by the co-legislators will soon follow and we hope for publication by the end of June and entry into force in July of 2023. The new rules will apply progressively. Yes, Markus, I looked for attention from my colleague and I got clarification, thank you. The MiCA provisions on stablecoins will start to apply in July of 2024. The provisions on issuers of other crypto-assets and crypto-asset service providers will start applying in January of 2025, together with the transfer of funds rules. We’re applying these new rules rather progressively, giving stakeholders time to adapt to them, and it gives us time to adopt the secondary legislation for the implementation of the rules.  On a final note, and I think this is very clear to all of us, crypto markets are international and this means that robust rules in the EU are necessary, but other countries need to play their part as well. So I’m very supportive of international regulatory discussions in this area. Indeed, in the US, just last week, we did have useful conversations with our US counterparts about the regulation of crypto markets. So thank you for this debate and I look forward now to listening to all of the contributions.