German Exchanges Will Have To Comply With New EU Anti Money Laundering Laws

According to a report published on the 24th of July, by a local news agency, FAZ, Germany is gearing up to join the growing number of EU nations providing regulation to crypto-related businesses. From 1st January 2020, Germany will be implementing the new EU anti-money laundering (AML) rules that will, for the first time, require the compliance of crypto businesses. The new regulations will be identifying crypto assets as financial instruments.

With that new status accorded to the emerging asset class, businesses dealing in them, namely cryptocurrency exchanges and wallet providers would have to obtain a license to operate freely in Germany. The license will be issued by the country’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) even though no timeline has been provided by the agency regarding the time these crypto-business must reach compliance or face punishment from the regulatory watchdog.

As you would expect, the public would usually have different opinions regarding the enactment of new rules, and the case wasn’t unusual as two officials quoted in the report had different views regarding the incoming regulations.

Bundestag Free Democratic Party Frank member Schäffler on his part insisted that forcing crypto businesses to abide by the said AML laws, and mandatory licensing would hurt innovation. He said,

“The government is now forcing cryptocurrency trading platform providers to overrun the country and seek another location in the EU.”

Christian Schmied, a partner of the law firm Hengeler Mueller, was, on the other hand, pleased with the incoming rules. According to him, it would allow institutional participation in the crypto space. He advocated for more regulatory clarity and said,

“The technology has not yet been accepted by institutional investors because a reliable legal framework is missing.”

Meanwhile, in another news from the German crypto space, Stmarket.co reported yesterday that BaFin approved a €250 million token offering by blockchain startup, Fundament.

Rishma Banerjee

Rishma is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and has a special place in her life for sifting through all sorts of random trivia, thank you very much.