On 21 May 2024, a bill of law n° 8387 was introduced before the Luxembourg Parliament. Its objective is to amend several pieces of Luxembourg legislation to operationalise various European regulations, in particular Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCAR)1 and Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 (TFR)2. Here are some of the key takeaways:
1. the national registration regime for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) set out under the AML Act3 will be repealed from 30 December 2024 onwards following the creation of an harmonised EU authorisation regime for crypto asset service providers (CASPs) under MiCAR. From the same date, CASPs will become obliged entities under the AML Act.
2. VASPs already registered with the CSSF on 30 December 2024 will benefit from a transitional regime:
- They will remain registered until 1st July 2026 or until they have received or were refused an authorisation as CASP, whatever is the earlier;
- During that transitional period, VASPs remain subject to the professional obligations under the AML Act and will be treated as CASPs for the purposes of the TFR;
- The CSSF will remain the competent authority for these VASPs.
3. Amendments shall be introduced into the AML Act to clarify, in respect of transfers or provision of services in relation to crypto assets, the scope of application of the AML Act and applicable obligations.
4. It is proposed to amend the act of 16 July 2019 on the operationalisation of European regulations in the area of financial services (the 2019 Act) to designate CSSF as the competent authority in charge of supervising the proper implementation of the MiCAR and TFR requirements, grant the necessary supervisory powers to CSSF and define applicable administrative and, where relevant, criminal sanctions.
5. The legislator exercises the option under article 2(5) TFR meaning that TFR requirements shall not apply to domestic transfers of funds not exceeding EUR1,000 to a payee’s payment account permitting payment exclusively for the provision of goods or services where the payment service provider of the payee:
- falls within the scope of the AML Directive4 and
- is able to trace back, through the payee, by means of a unique transaction identifier, the transfer of funds from the person who has an agreement with the payee for the provision of goods or services.
Footnotes
1 Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of 31 May 2023 on markets in crypto-assets, as amended.
2 Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2023 on information accompanying transfers of funds and certain crypto-assets.
The bill of law also aims at operationalising:
- Regulation (EU) 2023/606 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2023 amending Regulation (EU) 2015/760 as regards the requirements pertaining to the investment policies and operating conditions of European long-term investment funds and the scope of eligible investment assets, the portfolio composition and diversification requirements and the borrowing of cash and other fund rules;
- Regulation (EU) 2023/2631 of 22 November 2023 on European Green Bonds and optional disclosures for bonds marketed as environmentally sustainable and for sustainability-linked bonds.
3 Amended act of 12 November 2004 on the combat against money laundering and terrorist financing (the AML Act).
4 Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, as amended (the AML Directive).
