French Central Bank President Francois Villeroy de Garaud urged EU regulators to “avoid adopting divergent or contradictory regulations or regulating too late.” He warned that “to do so would create a level playing field and risk arbitrage and cherry-picking.”
French central bank governor warns against adopting “overly complex” crypto regulations
Bank of France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau spoke about cryptocurrency regulation at a conference on digital finance in Paris on Tuesday. The French central bank governor stressed that.
we must be very careful to avoid adopting divergent or contradictory regulations or regulating too late. To do so would create an uneven playing field and run the risk of arbitrage and cherry-picking.
Villeroy de Galhau added that “overly complex” crypto regulations may lack investor protection and anti-money laundering.
The European Commission introduced the Crypto Asset Market Regulation (MiCA) bill in September 2020 as part of its Digital Finance Strategy to bring crypto assets, issuers, and service providers across the EU under one regulatory framework. The European Parliament and the Council reached a tentative agreement on the MiCA bill on June 30, but MiCA is not expected to be implemented until 2024.
In August, the European Central Bank (ECB) outlined plans to harmonize the regulatory framework governing crypto activities and services in the EU.” Currently, there is no harmonized regulatory framework governing crypto asset activities and services in the EU,” the regulator explained, adding that banks are increasingly considering whether to offer crypto products and services and that it is the ECB’s role to “ensure they do so safely and soundly.”
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s top securities market regulator, warned in May that soaring inflation could drive retail investors toward cryptocurrencies, and ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos said Monday that while growth is weakening, inflation in the euro zone is increasingly broad-based, he said.” We see that there will be a marked slowdown in the third and fourth quarters and we may find ourselves with a growth rate close to zero,” he elaborated.
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