According to local news sources, the European Union has ratified new anti-money laundering(AML) legislation, including  cryptocurrency.

According to Spanish news source La Vanguardia, the month we passed the European Union formally approved the legislation approved by the European Parliament. The new rules included in the legislation will be published in the official journal of the EU and will take 18 months for EU member states to change their national legislation to include new rules.

Authorities within the EU will investigate cryptocurrencies, such as prepaid cards, as well as Bitcoin, and focus primarily on ‘anonymity’ features of crypto money.

When the legislation comes into force, it will have to comply with the AML standards of the crypto money markets in the EU. Among these standards, there will likely be a full-fledged customer identity verification process.

The main reason behind the European Parliament’s ratification was that the organization did not want to struggle wtih the elements  that threatened the (EU’s) citizens and the financial sector .

Krisjanis Karins, a member of the European Parliament, said in a press release issued after the organization’s approval:

“This legislation helps address the threats to our citizens and the financial sector by allowing greater access to the information about the people behind firms and by tightening rules regulating virtual currencies and anonymous prepaid cards,”

Although it is too early to predict what effect legislation would have on the crypto money sectors in the countries governed by EU laws, the two crypto money markets in the EU wanted the rules covering the sector to be much clearer.

Eric Demuth, CEO of Austrian-based BitPanda, said that the formalization of the crypto money sector would benefit people doing business in this sector because people are not sure how legitimate they are doing because the rules are not clear.