French Regulator Working to Clarify New Crypto Rules, Align With EU

France's financial market regulator will spell out the new requirements for crypto firms to register in the country, Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, head of the agency, said Wednesday.

“We will work to clarify these new rules,” Financial Market Authority (AMF) Chairwoman Barbat-Layani told lawmakers on the French Senate’s finance committee of legislation the National Assembly voted for on Tuesday, saying her experts will talk with industry representatives.

Barbat-Layani said she would “adapt French crypto license conditions to make them as operationally close as possible to the new European rules,” referring to the Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA) set to be agreed on imminently by the European Union.

Extra checks on companies’ cybersecurity were a “particularly important” element of the new rules, Barbat-Layani said, despite protests from crypto lobbyists that they could prove unworkable for crypto firms to meet in practice.

In a proposal rubber stamped by the French National Assembly Tuesday, lawmakers proposed strengthening the regulatory regime in the wake of the collapse of FTX, although Barbat-Layani urged the politicians not to tar the whole industry with the same brush.

“Digital finance shouldn’t be condemned for FTX any more than traditional finance was for Madoff,” she said, referring to Bernie Madoff, who perpetuated a Ponzi scheme and who died in prison in 2021.