Irish companies that operate with crypto will have to adhere to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regimes starting with April. Irish lawmakers will thus impose AML ID checks for the first time beginning next month.
The Central Bank of Ireland has recently extended the AML and CFT guidelines, and crypto-asset service providers will have to comply with these regulations for the first time. This comes after the latest European Union AML Directive has been transposed into Irish law.
Crypto assets have been cited by European lawmakers as an area of particular regulatory concern in the last years, hence the new directive. Some of them even warned that stablecoins could impact the EU monetary sovereignty if permitted to flourish unbridled by regulation.
This means that all Irish companies that operate with crypto and the firms that provide services to such companies will have to complete due diligence checks on their clients and account for both the origin and destination of their clients’ funds.
Therefore, Irish crypto firms will be required to maintain the same AML and CFT policy standards that are required of mainstream financial service providers.
The news regarding the new regulations has been welcomed by the co-chair of the FinTech & Payments Association of Ireland, Josh Hogan, who stated that “Ireland has the opportunity to take advantage of its well-earned reputation in both finance and technology to position itself as the leading jurisdiction in which to establish an EU-regulated crypto-services business.”
He has also said that this will have a positive impact and “bring real commercial benefits in terms of jobs, business revenues, and taxes.” Moreover, he has said that Ireland thus excels “at being a ‘fast follower’ in the application of this new area of EU financial services regulation.”
Last month, the European Securities and Markets Authority warned of the fact that “non-regulated crypto-assets” had started to grow in popularity as a result of “strong investor demand and search for yield amid unprecedented global fiscal and monetary stimulus.”
Source: Cointelegraph