The EBA consults on new Guidelines on preventing the abuse of funds and certain crypto-assets transfers for money laundering and terrorist financing purpose
On November 24th, 2023 the European Banking Authority (EBA) initiated a public consultation on its latest Guidelines aimed at preventing the misuse of funds and certain types of crypto-asset transfers in money laundering and terrorist financing. These guidelines, often referred to as the ‚travel rule‘, outline the responsibilities of Payment Service Providers (PSPs), Intermediary PSPs (IPSPs), crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), and Intermediary CASPs (ICASPs) in identifying and addressing missing or incomplete information in fund and crypto-asset transfers. They provide a detailed framework for these service providers to effectively manage transfers lacking essential information, thereby enhancing the EU’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) efforts. The EBA invites stakeholders to participate in this consultation until 26 February 2024.
The primary goal of these Guidelines is to safeguard against the exploitation of financial and crypto-asset transfers for terrorist financing and other criminal activities. They are designed to ensure traceability of such transfers for the purposes of prevention, detection, and investigation of money laundering and terrorist financing. The EBA is dedicated to fostering a unified approach among PSPs, IPSPs, CASPs, and ICASPs, along with competent authorities across the EU, in implementing effective procedures to detect and handle fund and crypto-asset transfers that lack necessary information about the sender and receiver.
Consultation Process: Interested parties can submit their comments via the ’send your comments‘ button on the EBA’s consultation page, with the submission deadline being 26 February 2024.
A virtual public hearing on the consultation paper is scheduled for 17 January 2024, from 14:00 to 16:00 Paris time. Stakeholders wishing to participate can register via the provided link by 3 January 2023, 16:00 CET. Dial-in details will be shared with registered attendees.
All received contributions will be made public after the consultation period, except when confidentiality is requested.
Legal Context and Background: In July 2021, the European Commission released a legislative package to reform the EU’s AML/CFT framework, including a recast of Regulation (EU) 2015/847 (now Regulation (EU) 2023/1113) and amendments to Directive (EU) 2015/849. These revisions align the EU’s legal framework with the FATF’s standards, extending the ‚travel rule‘ to include CASPs and subjecting them to the same AML/CFT obligations as credit and financial institutions.
Under Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 and Directive (EU) 2015/849, the EBA is mandated to issue guidelines for competent authorities, PSPs, and CASPs on compliance measures and the technical aspects of the Regulation’s application. The EBA’s proposal includes repealing the 2017 Joint European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) Guidelines under Regulation (EU) 2015/847 and replacing them with updated guidelines to reflect these changes.