Romania Drafts New Law To Target Cryptocurrency

A draft of an Emergency Ordinance published by the Romanian Ministry of Finance sets out the conditions and requirements that must be met by an issuer of electronic money in the Eastern European country.

As per the draft bill, the issuer must have a minimum of EUR 350,000 worth of share capital, and every one of its members must be individually vetted and approved by the National Bank of Romania (BNR). Ostensibly to tackle organized crime, the proposed vetting measures will include full verification of individual tax payment history and personal legal records, according to a local report.

The draft makes no direct mention of ‘cryptocurrencies’, using only the term ‘electronic money’. It further states that electronic money issuance may only be carried out by credit institutions, electronic money institutions, the European Central Bank (ECB) and local or regional public authorities.

It is specified that in order to be recognized as an electronic money institution’, organizations must be legally authorized to do so under Romanian law. In other words, for cryptocurrency companies to operate legally in Romania, they must register under and be supervised by the BNR, which also provides the regulatory authorization to issue electronic money.

The draft also states that the authorization for issuance of electronic money is 12 months, and if money issuance is not done with the 12 months, authorization will be withdrawn.

In another stringent legislation that seems to be targeting cryptocurrency, there is a clause that states that authorization will be withdrawn if the electronic money issuance is outside the Romanian territory or if authorization was given based on false information.

The draft describes electronic money to be “monetary value stored electronically, including magnetic, representing a claim on the issuer issued on receipt of funds for the purpose of performing payment transactions and which is accepted by a person other than the issuer of electronic money.”