Unlock the Digest of the editor for free
Europe’s new anti-money laundering practices has warned that crypto-assets are the biggest challenge to stop dirt money that infiltrates the financial system of the region.
Bruna Szego, chairman of the EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority, told the Financial Times that the cryptomarkt is a clear priority because it is “considerably exposed to money laundering and financing risks for terrorism”.
Europe had to be wary of these risks, Szego said, because “our market is quite fragmented and many crypto-assist service providers are looking for licenses here” under the new PAN EU License Framework that was launched early this year.
Crypto-assets also raised increased risks because of their cross-border nature, their ability to be kept anonymous and the speed at which they can be transferred, she said.
Amla, which was created last year and only formally accepted his legal powers on 1 July, meant his intention to concentrate on the crypto sector by warning about the risk of “inconsistent checks” between EU -National Regulators in a declaration on Tuesday.
Szego emphasized that supervisors should be “looking at the useful owner of the crypto asset service providers – who are their shareholders and where are they”. She added: “We must be sure that the owners are not involved in money laundering or terrorism financing.”
The public prosecutor of France said earlier this year that the Binance was investigating suspicions that the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange broke EU wax and terrorist financing laws – that the company has denied.
Binance’s co-founder Changpeng Zhao resigned as his Chief Executive in 2023 before he was sentenced to four months in prison by American officials who also set the company a fine of $ 4.3 billion for not preventing money laundering and international sanctions.
Szego said that when Amla takes over the direct supervision of around 40 of the largest and most potentially risky financial institutions in the EU in 2028, “some providers of the Crypto Asset Service are probably until the first 40 financial institutions that we supervise directly”.
Her critical comments reflect that of the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental authority set up to combat terrorism financing and money laundering, what said last month That many parts of the world “continue to struggle” with regulating crypto assets. It estimated that 75 percent of the worldwide areas of law did not fully meet the requirements.
But these warnings contrast with the more crypto-friendly approach of the US government under President Donald Trump. Washington has dropped various high -profile enforcement cases against digital asset groups and is close to the adoption of legislation to make the sector more closely integrated into the regular financial system.
SZEZO said that Amla would consider various initial options to tackle the risks of crypto assets, including making a “thematic assessment” of national authorities and a joint analysis of the market with national financial intelligence units.
The authority, based in Frankfurt, currently only has 30 employees, but it is hurring to hire more with plans to reach 120 employees by the end of the year, 240 by the end of 2026 and 430 by the time it started in 2028 immediately supervision. “It takes six to nine months to hire someone,” said Sizego.
On Tuesday, Amla said that because the EU licenses of crypto companies were done by the 27 national authorities of the block, “there is a risk of various application” of legal standards between them.
It strived to use his powers to supervise the national authorities to ensure that they only approve crypto companies that have effective compliance systems “from the first day”. Szego said it was important for crypto companies to “have someone on the board who understands” anti-wue wages and financing of the fight against terrorism.