Lack of Crypto Experts a ‘Major Concern’ for EU Bank Regulator

The European Banking Authority (EBA) is worried about its ability to accommodate new crypto regulations due to come into force in 2025, with the lack of talent and logistic issues among the key problems it faces.

One of the challenges, EBA chair José Manuel Campa said in an interview with the Financial Times, is that it’ll be only until roughly 2025 when the agency will know exactly which cryptocurrencies it will be charged with supervising.

Based in Paris and founded in 2011, the EBA is responsible for overseeing banking regulations across the European Union. It sets the standard for rules across the banking sector in all member sets.

The EU finalized its Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislative package in March this year. The new legislation, which puts a strong focus on stablecoins, seeks to achieve legal certainty for the crypto industry while ensuring financial stability across all 27 member nations.

Campa, however, acknowledged that the “very dynamic” nature of the crypto industry means that regulation “naturally tends to go behind the curve,” adding that in three years’ time cryptocurrencies may have “transformed into other uses that I cannot anticipate.”

EU banking regulator cites hiring squeeze

Another “major concern,” Campa said, is hiring and retaining the specialized personnel the agency requires to supervise the $1 trillion crypto industry.

“This is in high demand across society,” admitted the EBA chair.

One possible way to onboard experts with skills in the crypto sector would, naturally, be to offer generous salaries, something that the EBA chair said is “not within the range of possible discussions” between the agency and the European Commission.

Although Campa didn’t rule out that EBA may get it wrong with the fast-evolving crypto sector, he insists that reputational risk is not something he would be concerned about.

“My concern is more about making sure the risk we have identified . . . is properly managed,” he said. “If we don’t do as well as we should have, we’ll have to live with the consequences.”