On July 27, José Manuel Campa, president of the European Banking Authority (EBA), said that he was “concerned” that the EBA could not comply with the regulations ordered by the MiCA due to the lack of qualified personnel specialized in cryptocurrencies.
Campa said that the demand for specialized personnel in the technology and cryptocurrency area in Europe “is in high demand across society,” so it has become almost impossible for the EBA to hire staff specialized enough to meet the requirements of the new job offers.
The EBA was created in the wake of the financial crisis to ensure that European banks had enough capital to face any economic problem. As the crypto ecosystem grew, part of its functions implied supervising some stablecoins and cryptocurrencies used in Europe as a means of payment.
EBA is Worried By The Dynamic Nature of the Crypto Industry
Campa noted that the agency is concerned about the logistics of planning how to correctly exercise its new powers because even though it is almost 3 years away from knowing exactly which digital currencies the EBA will oversee, a lot can change in the crypto ecosystem during that time due to its dynamic creative nature.
“My concern is more about making sure the risk we have identified . . . [in the crypto market] is properly managed. If we don’t do as well as we should have, we’ll have to live with the consequences,”
On the other hand, the EBA official was optimistic about the global macro scenario, noting that a financial crisis in Europe is highly unlikely to happen, at least in the “short term,” despite the high inflation and the economic contraction of the region as a whole.
“We’re not in a macro [economic] environment that’s pointing towards recession, we’re in a macro environment that’s pointing towards decreased growth . . . I’m not worried about banks really cutting down credit,”
MiCA Regulations to Take Effect During 2023
The controversial MiCA establishes several rules for the international regulation of the crypto ecosystem in Europe. It affects cryptocurrency issuers, exchange platforms, and wallets. It focuses mainly on stablecoins and how the crypto sphere can be safer and more stable.
According to Bruno Le Maire, French Minister of Economy, the regulation will put an end to “the crypto Wild West,” where the lack of regulation has facilitated many thefts and scams by people who take advantage of legal loopholes to commit their crimes.
Therefore, the EBA is short of time to assemble a specialized cryptocurrency team to enforce MiCA, especially since the independent agency does not have the same budget as other agencies and crypto companies around the world.
