The European Union Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, Mairead McGuinness, visited the United States in October to discuss the EU-US Cooperation on Digital and Sustainable Finance. This visit came after the European Union approved the Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation, more commonly known as MiCA, early in October. The aim of this discussion was to highlight the role of financial innovation in creating a competitive but united financial sector.
The Commissioner has been open about her views that “Cryptocurrency is one of the newest ways to launder money.” In fact, during the meeting with US legislators, she emphasised the fact that there is a need for other global actors to establish laws to counteract the problem. The Commissioner explained that there must be a global effort in the regulation of crypto. The meeting was attended by Congressman Patrick McHenry and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the latter being one of the co-sponsors of the bill entitled Responsible Financial Innovation Act (“the RFIA”). The Commissioner applauded this bill as being a step “in the same direction”. She did, however, warn against delays in enacting such a piece of legislation fearing “financial stability problems” and issues because of “lack of certainty”.
In the United Kingdom, the new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has been advocating in favour of crypto legislation. While he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sunak expressed his wish for the UK to become a crypto hub. Within his first few days lawmakers have agreed on new rules for stablecoins. There shall be consultations in the coming weeks to discuss the regulation of stablecoins. The UK government’s aim is to regulate first the least stable of coins and move forward from there. This is a further step towards the global regulation of cryptocurrency.
