Linardo Martinčević, FinTech coordinator in the Croatian National Bank participated today in an international scientific conference hosted by the Faculty of Economics and Business, Zagreb entitled “Technology, innovation and stability: New directions in finance (TINFIN)”. In a panel discussion “FinTech in 2022 and beyond: Possibilities and new regulatory challenges” he presented up to date experience in the work of the CNB’s regulatory and innovation hub and briefly addressed current issues regarding the adoption of the regulatory framework for crypto-assets in the EU and the progress made in the development of the central bank digital currency of the European Central Bank (the project of the digital euro).

“Final negotiations are underway between the EU Council and the European Parliament as a co-legislation aimed at reaching a final agreement regarding the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, MiCAR. The French Presidency believe that the negotiations might be finalised until the end of this country’s presidency, i.e. until end-June 2022”, Martinčević said, adding that a high level of harmonisation was achieved between the positions of the EU Council and the European Parliament, while a certain amount of adjustment remains to be made as regards the treatment of individual elements of the proposed text, such as for example, the scope of the regulation with regard to non-fungible tokens, NFT, supervisory architecture, environment-related aspects, etc.

As regards the progress made in the project of the digital euro, Martinčević noted that exhaustive expert analyses were being made of the impact of the introduction of the digital euro as well as public opinion polls on the subject. “Given the observed public concern that the digital euro might represent an attempt to control citizen’s consumption and personal data and thus infringe on their privacy, further efforts will need to be made to clarify that central banks will not and do not wish to use the digital euro as a surveillance tool for monitoring the citizens’ private sphere in the area of payments. The digital euro should serve as a complement to the existing payment instruments and afford all protection of privacy safeguards that would be expected from such a modern form of digital money”, Martinčević said in conclusion.