ROME: February 2, 2018, the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) published a draft of a ministerial decree on the regulation of virtual currency-related service providers. Comments were gathered during a two-week public consultation period, which ended February 16, 2018.
The new set of rules, which details registration and reporting requirements for Italian virtual currency firms, will reportedly be implemented within three months of the decree’s adoption. The draft decree also mentions the cooperative relationship between the MEF and police forces to address non-compliant virtual currency firms.
As defined in the decree, virtual currency is “the digital representation of value, not issued by a central bank.” The broad directive would apply to virtual currency service providers (e.g., exchanges and lenders), and also includes “commercial operators that accept virtual currency as [payment] for … goods and services or other utilities.”
