Swiss Parliament Approves Motion on Crypto Regulation

Switzerland's Federal Assembly, the federal legislature of the Swiss Parliament, has approved a motion instructing the Federal Council to start adapting the existing legislation for digital currency regulation.

As mentioned in the March 20 official press release, the motion was approved with 99 to 83 votes in favor, while ten legislators abstained from voting.

The motion was introduced in the assembly by liberal public representative Giovanni Merlini. With this, he intends to instruct the Swiss Federal Council to adapt existing provisions on procedural instruments of judicial and administrative authorities and then apply them for cryptocurrency regulations.

While introducing the proposal, Merlini argued that regulation in the sector would close various gaps in the market and thus protect the investors’ interest against various abuses.

A Few Criticisms

However, some arguments were also made against the motion as it did not clarify the exact measures to be taken to mitigate the risks. Doubts have been raised whether the persons responsible for the cryptocurrency trading platforms should be equated with financial intermediaries and will come under the purview of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).

Following the approval of the motion, Swiss finance minister Ueli Maurer took a dig against it, stating that the proposal went ahead of the scope of the planned regulations.

The minister, earlier, put forth his views against new laws specific to Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain . He instead insisted on tweaking existing laws to create a liberal market for new technologies and associated financial applications.

Regulators Tightening Their Grip

The Swiss financial market watchdog regularly issues warning against shady unregulated crypto-based service providers to protect the customers from falling into any financial trap.

Earlier this month, a report by the French Finance Committee recommended for a complete ban on privacy-oriented digital currencies. However, that proposal was also vague without defining any specifics about various types of such cryptocurrencies.