On 7 December 2023, the European Banking Authority (EBA) issued a consultation paper containing draft regulatory technical standards in accordance with Article 32(5) of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) which mandates the Authority to specify the requirements for the conflicts of interest policies and procedures for issuers of asset-referenced tokens (ARTs) as well as the details and methodology for the content of the disclosure.

Article 32(1) of MiCAR requires issuers of ARTs to implement and maintain effective policies and procedures to identify, prevent, manage, and disclose conflicts of interest. The conflicts of interest concerned are the ones that could arise between the issuers of ARTs and a defined list of persons or parties. This list includes the holders of ARTs but also the shareholders or members of the issuers of ARTs, any shareholder or member whether direct or indirect that has a qualifying holding in the issuers, the members of their management body and their employees. It includes as well any third-party providing one of the functions as referred in Article 34(5) first subparagraph, point (h) of MiCAR which are the ones linked with the operating, the investment, and the custody of the reserve assets and, where applicable, the distribution of ARTs to the public. Article 32(5) of MiCAR provides for the EBA to develop draft RTS specifying the requirements for those policies and procedures as well as the details and methodology for the content of the disclosure.

The deadline for comments on the consultation paper is 7 March 2024.

The EBA will hold a virtual public hearing on the consultation paper on 11 January 2024.

It is expected that the final RTS will be available when MiCAR enters into force.