The European Banking Authority (EBA) said in its response to the European Commission’s Call for Advice that banks don’t need cryptocurrency protections — yet, according to a Friday (April 29) press release from the European policymaker.
The European Commission’s Call for Advice proposed a set of recommendations to “simplify the procedures around some of the existing macroprudential tools and to increase harmonization for others,” the news release says.
The EBA wants to see the region rebuild regulatory capital buffers so they can be released when needed; undertake an evaluation of the interaction of macroprudential measures with leverage ratio, own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) requirements; maintain clear roles and responsibilities of the different authorities involved; and include a legal mandate in the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) to develop methodologies covering both the identification of other important institutions.
The authority is also seeking to simplify the text of the CRD and the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) around governance procedures for some macroprudential measures; perform further assessments on the ability of current macroprudential tools to address environmental, crypto assets and cybersecurity risks; and establish an oversight and monitoring system for non-bank lenders and enlarge the scope of the macroprudential framework to cover non-bank lenders.
Related: EU Policymakers Question ‘Resource Intensive’ Crypto Monitoring Proposals
Earlier this week, PYMNTS reported on new European Union proposals which purport to monitor crypto transactions with unhosted wallets, which could reportedly breach the risk-based approach that is being pushed by money laundering regulators.
CoinDesk reported that policymakers have said any decision to cut out a $1,055 threshold for identifying crypto payments would need to be backed up with evidence.
The European Parliament voted on March 31 to identify participants in crypto payments, including transactions with wallets not hosted with any regulated exchange. That led to warnings from the industry about how that could derail innovation and hurt privacy, per the report.
The new rules also would necessitate forcing large transactions with unhosted wallets to be automatically reported to the authorities — which critics say could be overwhelming. Speaking at an event Wednesday at the European Parliament in Brussels, the European Banking Authority’s Joana Neto said it’s “resource intensive” and questioned who’s going to handle it all.
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