France Wants EU to Give ‘Greater Powers’ to ESMA in Overseeing Crypto: Report

French regulators have suggested European Union governments give responsibility to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in overseeing cryptocurrencies, according to a Financial Times report.

France proposed the change Tuesday as part of a package of reforms to strengthen financial regulation across Europe by giving “greater powers” to the EU's Paris-based, securities markets regulator, ESMA.
“Granting ESMA the power of direct supervision of public offers of cryptoassets in the EU and of cryptoasset service providers would create obvious economies of scale for all national supervisors and concentrate expertise in an efficient way, for the common European benefit,” said the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), France’s markets regulator.
“The aim of these proposals is to endow ESMA with a greater role in order to achieve harmonized, unified supervision, ensuring a level playing field while minimizing the possibility of regulatory arbitrage,” the AMF said in a statement.
ESMA did not respond to CoinDesk's request for comment by press time.

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