(Finance) – The European Central Bank wants to harmonize the ways in which the banks offer cryptocurrencies to ensure that they have ccapital and sufficient skills in a sector that some parliamentarians of European Union they defined the “Far West”. The agency reports it Reuters.
Several companies of cryptocurrencies, such as Binance and Crypto.com, have been authorized to operate in EU countries such as Italy, France, Spain, Greece or Germany after having adhered to national anti-money laundering and terrorist financing measures. This precedes the issuing of licenses at the European level, which will not take place before 2023.
The ECB said banks are also considering involvement in the sector cryptocurrencies, but that national rules diverge considerably.
“In Germany, some cryptocurrency activities are subject to the banking license requirement and, to date, several banks have asked to be authorized to carry out such activities,” the ECB noted in a statement.
“It is in this context that the ECB is taking steps to harmonize the assessment of license applications”.
The ECB, which directly regulates the main lenders in the euro zone, has announced that it will examine whether cryptocurrency assets are in line with the “profile” risk assessment of a bank, which determines the amount of capital to hold.
The European Central Bank will also be responsible for verifying whether a bank is able to identify and assess the risks deriving from cryptoassets and whether the members of the board of directors and the IT staff have a “solid experience” in the sector.