The European Union is expected to release its proposal on digital payments and a possible digital euro soon. In advance of the anticipated release, the Crypto Council for Innovation has issued a statement on the forthcoming policy.
Mark Foster, the EU Policy Lead at the Council, says it will be a big day as the digital payments package will further underscore the EU’s desire to ensure its legislative and regulatory regime is fit for a digital age.
“The creation of a payment services regulation will bring more coherence and consistency across the EU’s single market when it comes to rules of the game for payment providers. Both are welcomed from the CCI perspective,” says Foster.
The Council supports the goal of Open Finance and the portability of data which will make users at the center of how their data is used.
At the same time, he expects there will need to be further clarification on certain requirements which may be too burdensome or bureaucratic.
“We will need to study the detail of the package, but one aspect where clarification is needed concerns the requirement for currently licenced e-money providers to relicense under this new regime. On the face of it, this appears unnecessarily bureaucratic and burdensome for firms and regulators alike,” states Foster. “Some form of grandfathering with supplementary requirements for any additional rules would be preferable.”
Regarding the digital euro, they are taking a wait-and-see approach if the EU pursues a CBDC in a way that it will be “complimentary: and not duplicative of existing payment options – including stablecoins which are addressed in the EU MiCA legislation.
