On Tuesday, a leading European Union lawmaker said that the newly proposed money laundering rules won’t block crypto payments. Notably, the lawmaker’s comment came just hours before the European Parliament was scheduled to vote on the proposed legislation.
Sources reveal that the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation was scheduled to be discussed by the Economic and Civil Liberties Committees on Tuesday. The proposed legislation would impose a limit of 1,000 euros ($1,080) for payments made from self-hosted wallets where it isn’t possible to identify the payer.
Damien Carême, a French lawmaker from the Green party and one of the two lawmakers jointly responsible for negotiating the law on behalf of the parliament, briefed reporters that the agency is not planning to prevent crypto transactions. In his words:
We are absolutely not preventing crypto transactions, it’s just when identification isn’t possible.
Referring to the provisions on money laundering in the metaverse, Carême said he didn’t want to see dirty money inhibited by banking controls to simply flow into other sectors. If the legislation passes, the EU lawmakers will enter into negotiations with the EU’s Council which represents the bloc’s member states to frame a consistent version of the law.
In a draft released last year, the EU Council sought to prevent banks or crypto providers from handling cryptocurrencies that guarantee anonymity however Carême said a ban on the likes of Dash, Monero, and Zcash wasn’t needed as they were already outlawed by the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA), which is scheduled for discussion and voting in April.
While the world has set its eyes on Europe as the region implements its landmark crypto regulation, some lawmakers feel that MiCA wouldn’t be sufficient in regulating crypto assets. In particular, money laundering has been a concern for regulators across the globe.
In a session held in February, lawmakers in the US decided to make changes to the existing anti-money laundering regime. As Todayq News reported Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat from Massachusetts, and Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican from Kansas, plan to reintroduce legislation that would extend anti-money laundering laws to a broad array of cryptocurrency ecosystems. That would include digital asset wallet providers, miners, validators, and other blockchain network participants.
On the other hand, the legislative council of Hong Kong approved an amendment to its anti-money laundering (AML) and terrorist financing system in December to include providers of virtual asset services. With effect starting on June 1, the latest legislation will create a new licensing system for service providers of virtual assets. The new amendment will regulate crypto exchange service providers by the same laws as conventional financial institutions.