thecoinrise.com
According to a Bloomberg report published Tuesday, led by Germany, a group of European Union member countries, including the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Italy, and Luxembourg, has planned to include crypto companies under the scope of the Anti-Money Laundering or AML-focused group — ostensibly the European Commission’s AML Authority, which was first proposed in July 2021. The report says that the organization would make its debut in 2024 and be “fully functional” by 2026.
The European Commission (EC) is reportedly aiming to have its financial watchdog group examine criminal activities at crypto firms in collaboration with other authorities.
The increased regulatory involvement in the region has resulted in several improvements. The EC has planned to start the development of CBDC in early 2023. In January, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) called for public comments as it looks to regulate DLT or Distributed Ledger Technology.
AML watchdog aims to have explicit oversight to crypto transactions
The inclusion of crypto firms on the AML watchdog’s agenda is reportedly intended to provide more explicit oversight of crypto transactions under EU financial services regulations. The anonymous source wants the group to focus on high-risk cross-border transactions handled by crypto service providers rather than banks and other financial institutions, according to the news report. The proposed approach, however, has yet to be discussed by EU member states.
“It is key that the scope of the new EU authority explicitly includes crypto-assets, given that this is one of the fields more prone to money laundering activities,” said European Parliament member Luis Garicano.
If passed, the AML watchdog would be among the first regulatory bodies with the power to monitor money laundering across large areas of Europe.
Increased cases of Money laundering
People laundered $8.6 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in 2021, according to a Chainalysis analysis from January, a 25% increase over the previous year.
In the United States, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said on February 17 that the FBI would develop a “dedicated team dedicated to cryptocurrency” called the Virtual Asset Exploitation Unit to track and seize illicitly used cash.