As from 1^st May 2022, the activities of certain virtual currency service providers in Belgium are regulated. These service providers have to meet a series of conditions, including ones relating to their professional integrity and compliance with the anti-money laundering legislation.

Who is affected by the new rules?

Exchange service providers between virtual and legal tender currencies as well as wallet providers established in Belgium.

Automated Teller Machines(ATM’s) installed in Belgium, i.e. ATM’s that allow the exchange between virtual and legal tender currencies, will also be subject to the new obligations.

Moreover, it is already forbidden for service providers governed by the law of a non-European Economic Area to offer these services on Belgian territory.

What are their obligations?

The providers concerned have to register with the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) in order to continue or start their activities. This registration implies compliance with a certain number of registration and operating conditions which are monitored by the FSMA.

These conditions mainly concern :

• the expertise and professional integrity of the effective managers of the service provider (e.g.: experience, …) ;
• the quality of certain shareholders of the service provider with regard to the need to guarantee a sound and prudent management;
• the organization of and compliance with the rules relating to the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism (e.g. customer identification).

The permanent respect of these obligations constitutes a condition for maintaining the registration with the FSMA.

What does FSMA control?

The new obligations and the modalities of control of the respect of these obligations are specified on the website of the FSMA. The Belgian Royal Decree of 8 February 2022on the status and supervision of providers of exchange services between virtual currencies and legal tender and providers of custody portfolio services is also available there.

The checks and controls carried out by the FSMA will cover the aspects covered by the regulation as described above for virtual currency to legal tender and/or custody wallet services only.

Please note: the fact that a virtual currency service provider is listed in the registers of the FSMA does not guarantee any specific protection regime for the customers of this provider and does not give any guarantee on the quality of the services offered by this provider.