Spain is reportedly set to approve new measures to modify its money laundering legislation to comply with the Europe Union’s Fifth Money Laundering Directive (AMLD 5). The implementation of AMLD5 has already forced several crypto companies to shut down in a few European countries, and now Spain is looking to enforce the same regulations. The Spanish parliament will vote on the updated regulations in the second half of 2020, which would then allow the central bank to police the nation’s crypto providers.
The law would require crypto businesses to register with financial authority.
Once the draft bill is approved, that would force crypto exchanges, wallet providers and other crypto businesses operating in the country to register with a financial regulator and prove that they are meeting AML requirements if they want to continue their operations. The Europan Union’s Fifth Money Laundering Directive went into effect starting this year. The directive requires member states to implement it into their national laws. The legislation is the EU’s first attempt to regulate cryptocurrency activities at EU-level expressly. Crypto businesses will be brought within the scope of EU anti-money laundering rules for the first time with this law.
Spain has no specific regulations regarding crypto.
The anti-money laundering law imposes registration and customer due to diligence requirements that force operators to disclose their traders’ identities and report suspicious activity. The Spanish regulators over the last couple years ago have tracked down illegal operations, but the country does not have any specific law regarding regulating crypto. The current legal framework in Spain does not contain a normative definition of cryptocurrencies. Several crypto exchanges and businesses announced to shut down in European countries after the government implemented new anti-money laundering laws. The law requires crypto businesses to share their customers’ details to authorities which did not sit well with some crypto business operators.
Several countries around the world have already implemented guidelines proposed by the Financial Action Task Force to regulate the crypto industry.
