Europe’s banking regulator fears it will fail to find the specialist staff needed to oversee the EU’s attempt to regulate the crypto market. The authority is also concerned about the lack of clarity regarding the digital assets it is supposed to oversee.
Banking Watchdog Faces Staffing Issues Threatening Its Ability to Regulate Crypto in the EU
Talent retention for all things crypto is a “major concern”, the man who chairs the European Banking Authority (EBA), revealed in an interview. The shortfall also applies to other areas, including technology and digitalization, with high demand for specialists across society, the executive added, as quoted by the Financial Times.
The Paris-based EBA was created in 2011, after the last financial crisis, to ensure that European banks have enough capital to overcome similar challenges in the future. More recently, he was also tasked with overseeing Europe’s attempt to regulate cryptocurrencies. He now says he is also preoccupied with planning for his new powers.
European institutions recently agreed on a draft regulatory framework called Markets in Crypto Assets (Mica). But the authority won’t know which digital coins, cryptocurrencies used for payments and stablecoins it has the power to oversee until around 2025, when the legislation is expected to come into effect, its chief said.
José Manuel Campa’s comments highlight the difficulties faced by many other organizations trying to catch up with the rapidly changing crypto sector. Banking institutions, fintech companies and consulting firms offer comprehensive packages to attract professionals whose skills are in high demand. Record inflation in the eurozone has also led to higher wage demands, the report notes.
The authority’s salaries are aligned with those of the European Commission and the EBA will not have the freedom to adjust them, Campa admitted. He’s also concerned that due to the dynamic nature of the crypto industry, regulation will lag behind, so he’s not sure what his agency will face in two years.
The senior EBA official noted that he was not concerned about the reputational risk if the authority made mistakes in monitoring the industry. “My concern is more to ensure that the risk we have identified is properly managed. If we don’t do as well as we should have, we will have to live with the consequences,” he explained.
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