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NEWS: EU to discuss crypto legislation with US officials at upcoming IMF-World Bank meetings

European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness - Photo Credit: EC - Audiovisual Service

By Elizabeth Hearst for AMLi

EU representatives will reportedly broach the need for a more coordinated global crypto regulatory framework with US officials at next week’s IMF-World Bank annual meetings. 

The bloc’s Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness revealed there was a “crowded agenda” for the US next week. 

Speaking at a media roundtable hosted by Bloomberg, Commissioner McGuinness added: “One of the items that won’t be bottom of the list, it will be in there right around the top is crypto.”

“I am sure they want to hear what we’ve done, how it went, what the problems were. I would be very happy to share our experience but also to hear what the US is planning to do,” said the Commissioner.

Earlier this year, the Council of the EU reached an agreement on the landmark Markets in Cryptoassets (MiCA) regulations, which would bring Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) under regulation for the first time.

The bloc is also expected to include cryptocurrency in the new EU AML Single Rulebook, currently being debated by the European Parliament. 

Despite the EU’s advances, other countries are still slow to enact more definitive crypto regulations, while central banks have called on governments to establish a more harmonised approach to crypto. 

Commissioner McGuinness stressed: “The message I will be bringing to Washington is that here in the EU we have a piece of legislation, we are a frontrunner in this.”

However she conceded that “a little bit like climate change, addressing crypto alone in the EU is not enough, we need to have global engagement and sharing of experience.”

In April, Commissioner McGuinness promised that the EU’s new crypto regulations would “protect investors and consumers”, which would create “legal certainty for innovators” allowing them to “scale-up their activities in the EU”.

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