The Cyprus SEC Is Calling For EU Anti-Money Laundering Framework Implementation

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Cyprus is calling for the implementation of the European Union’s Anti-Money Laundering Directive into the national law that will bring crypto regulation under its provisions according to the CySEC’s announcement that reached our crypto news today.

The EU directive first came into force last year on July 9 and set a new legal framework for the financial regulators in the European Union that monitor the crypto-related businesses in order to be able to protect the users, investors, and citizens from money laundering and financing terrorism.

Further, the directive extends its influence to crypto exchanges and wallet providers in order to enhance their transparency requirements that are conducted by anonymous parties whether that is payments done via exchanges or prepaid cards. All of the EU member states must adopt the directive into their national laws by 2020.

CySEC notes that its innovation hub received multiple reports from crypto-related entities that don’t fall under the existing regulatory framework. The agency is proposing to bring multiple additional areas of crypto-related activity in Cyprus under AML obligations such as:

 “a) exchange between crypto assets, b) transfer of virtual assets, and c) participation in and provision of financial services related to an issuer’s offer and/or sale of a crypto asset.”

Cyprus is one of the seven EU member countries that have already released a declaration that aims to promote the use of DLT in the region. Last fall, the national investment partner in the country, Invest Cyprus, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with VeChain Foundation from Singapore in order to work on multiple national level investment strategies that will be blockchain based.