The European Commission – working with different authorities – reportedly aims to grant its financial watchdogs the freedom to keep an oversight on illicit transactions at crypto companies. 

Specifically, as revealed via a Bloomberg post, a few member countries of the EU, led by Germany with the additional participation of The Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Italy, and Luxembourg, has a target of subjecting crypto entities to the authoritative scope of the Anti-Money Laundering-centric group – purportedly the European Commission’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority – which was initially proposed in July last year.

The group will reportedly start its operations in 2024 and be “fully functional” by 2026.

An EU diplomat reportedly revealed that via including crypto entities in the AML watchdog’s agenda, the group reportedly has plans down their pipeline to offer extra explicit coverage of crypto transactions under EU regulations, associated with financial services.

The official – who remains anonymous – reportedly expects the group to concentrate on high-risk cross-border transactions carried out by crypto service providers, apart from banks and other financial institutions.

Nonetheless, no official discussion has been held for the proposed framework by EU member countries.

“It is key that the scope of the new EU authority explicitly includes crypto-assets, given that this is one of the fields more prone to money laundering activities,” said Luis Garicano, a member of the European Parliament, further remarked. 

Should the proposal be approved, the AML watchdog would reportedly be the pioneering regulatory institution possessing the authoritative power to keep an oversight on money laundering, throughout major regions of Europe.