EU to Propose New Agency for Crypto Crackdown

The European Union (EU) is to propose a new agency and new rules concerning crypto-asset transfers.

• The EU is responding to calls for tougher action fighting money laundering, according to reports.
• The European Commission, the trading bloc's executive arm, is proposing an Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) to take "decisions towards some of the riskiest cross-border financial sector obliged entities," according to EU documents Wednesday, the reports said.
• Crypto-asset service providers would be obliged to collect and disclose data concerning originators and beneficiaries of transfers, something that is currently outside the scope of EU rules for financial services.
• Until now, anti-money laundering regulation has been the remit of the EU's 27 member states, but the Commission says problems such as terrorist financing and organized crime should be addressed centrally.
• Pressure for the EU to take firmer action on money laundering has mounted since the Danske Bank scandal of 2007-2015, in which €200 billion ($235 billion) of suspicious transactions flowed through an Estonian branch of the Danish bank.