Europe’s banking sector regulator is worried it won’t manage to find the specialized personnel needed for the oversight of the EU’s attempt to regulate the crypto market. The authority is also concerned over the lack of clarity regarding which digital assets it’s supposed to supervise.
The Paris-based EBA was established in 2011, after the last financial crisis, to ensure that European banks had enough capital to overcome similar challenges in the future. More recently, it was also tasked to oversee Europe’s bid to regulate cryptocurrencies. It now says it’s also worried about planning for its new powers.
José Manuel Campa’s comments underscore the difficulties faced by many other organizations trying to catch up with the fast-moving crypto sector. Banking institutions, fintech firms and consultancies have been offering extensive packages to attract those professionals whose skills are in high demand. Record inflation across the eurozone has also driven wage demands up, the report notes.
Salaries at the authority are aligned with those at the European Commission and EBA will not have the freedom to adjust them, Campa admitted. He is also worried that due to the dynamic nature of the crypto sector, regulation may lag behind so he doesn’t know what exactly his agency will be confronted with in two years’ time.
The top EBA official remarked he was not concerned about the reputational risk should the authority make mistakes in overseeing the industry. “My concern is more about making sure the risk we have identified is properly managed. If we don’t do as well as we should have, we’ll have to live with the consequences,” he elaborated.
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