Over the past few months, the European Banking Authority has conducted a consultation regarding guidelines related to the assessment of risk factors associated with crypto-assets. What should one pay attention to in such a case?
We took a brief look at the consultation and responded that the term “human rights” is not mentioned. Privacy is only discussed in terms of the risks posed when individuals protect their privacy.
This is noteworthy, as one would expect an institution of the European Union to be familiar with and uphold Articles 7 and 8 of the European treaties, which concern human rights.
Therefore, we have decided to draft a consultation response, suggesting that more comprehensive attention be given to assessing the human rights impact of their guidelines. After all, it is these EBA guidelines that result in banks verifying individuals’ nationality (under the context of ‘geographical risk factors’) and that individuals advocating for privacy are immediately viewed as suspicious.
Naturally, we have also included some comments about Regulation 2023/1113, particularly regarding the travel rule, as this is a matter of great concern to us.
We will continue to follow up on this.