Brussels, 29/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 2 February, the European Commission will unveil stricter rules for the sale of prepaid cards as part of its strategy to combat the financing of terrorism (see EUROPE 11469).
We understand that the Commission is considering changing the anti-money laundering directive to introduce “know you customer rules” for prepaid cards, inspired by existing rules in the United Kingdom. Anybody wishing to buy a prepaid card and wanting to activate it would have to give his address and information about his identity in order to receive an activation code in the post.
The idea behind prepaid cards is to boost social inclusion by allowing people to make electronic payment even if they do not have a bank account, but such cards were used to finance the Paris terrorist attacks in January and November 2015 (see EUROPE 11447).
No legislation is planned at this stage on virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, although the Commission is looking into the related anonymity rules.
At present, any European passport-holder crossing an EU external border with more than €10,000 in cash must inform the authorities about it. This requirement might be extended to include precious metal and the sending of cash by post.
Strongly promoted by France, the action plan against the financing of terrorism will include other draft legislation too, such as boosting cooperation among financial intelligence cells. It will be discussed by European finance ministers at the Ecofin Council on 12 February. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)