Abstract

On February 17, 2022, the Decree by Ministry of Economy and Finance dated January 13, 2022 (the “Decree”) introducing obligations for crypto-assets providers of services supplied in Italy was released on the Official Journal of the Italian Republic.

Pursuant to the Decree, these service providers must satisfy certain conditions and timely request to be enrolled into a Register (the “Register”) kept by the Italian competent authority (OAM, Organismo Agenti e Mediatori), otherwise their activity might be considered unlawful and administrative penalties be inflicted.

The new Italian measure attempts to align domestic legislation to the ongoing European Union policy on Anti-Money Laundering/Countering Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF).

Though the Decree pursues monitoring purposes only – therefore, apparently does not pose material requirements – it may nonetheless hurdle crypto-assets providers of services operating as a legal entity – rather than individual – in one or more EU countries other than Italy. Some doubts arise on effectiveness of these new rules in view of the coordination and fine-tunings that might be necessary once the European Regulation on Market in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) is approved.

The Decree is effective by February 18, 2022.

Articolo di Alessandro Foti pubblicato sul sito di De Berti Jacchia