The EBA consults on new Guidelines on preventing the abuse of funds and certain crypto-assets transfers for money laundering and terrorist financing purposes

EBA initiated a public consultation on new Guidelines aimed at preventing the abuse of funds and certain crypto-assets transfers for ML/TF purposes. “The Travel Rule Guidelines“ outline the steps that various financial service providers, including PSPs, Intermediary PSPs, CASPs, and Intermediary CASPs, should take to detect missing or incomplete information accompanying fund or crypto-asset transfers.
The Guidelines are part of an effort to establish a common understanding and ensure consistent application of EU law, strengthening AML/CFT measures. The primary objective is to prevent the misuse of funds and crypto-assets transfers for illicit purposes while enabling authorities to trace such transfers when necessary for AML/CFT investigations.
The EBA is responding to a EU’s legislative package proposed in July 2021 to reform the AML/ CFT framework, including extending AML/ CFT obligations and supervision to CASPs (EventID #11869, EventID #11922, EventID #11857, EventID #11948). This recast aligns the EU’s legal framework with FATF standards, extending the “travel rule“ obligation to include information about the originator and beneficiary for CASPs (please see also EventID#21488). The EBA proposes to issue new Guidelines, replacing previous ones, to fulfill its mandate under this recast regulation.
The draft Guidelines cover various aspects, including determining the use of cards or devices exclusively for goods and services payments, addressing technical limitations in information transfer, ensuring interoperability of protocols, specifying data points for transmission, and providing guidance on self-hosted wallets and direct debits.
The consultation seeks input until 26 February 2024, with a virtual public hearing scheduled for 17 January 2024. Interested entities are invited to register for the hearing by 3 January 2024 by 16.00 CET.