Art. 6 Policies and procedures on conflicts of interest in the context of personal transactions | RTS on CASP conflicts of interest | MiCA

This article drills down into a specific and sensitive area of conflict of interest management: the personal crypto-asset transactions of connected persons.

Building on the broader conflict of interest framework established in Articles 2 and 4, it requires that crypto-asset service providers subject certain transactions — those carried out by or on behalf of connected persons outside their professional scope, or for their own account, family members, or persons from whom they stand to gain a material advantage — to close scrutiny and monitoring.

The article goes further by setting out the procedural safeguards that must govern how such transactions are approved, documented, and reported, including the requirement that transaction conditions mirror those that would exist between independent parties.

Important points:

Ensure your conflict of interest policies subject personal crypto-asset transactions of connected persons to close scrutiny and monitoring, particularly where those transactions benefit the connected person, their family, or anyone from whom they may gain a material advantage.
Establish volume-based thresholds above which transactions require approval by the management body, and ensure employees and management body members are aware of the applicable rules.
Keep detailed records of all flagged transactions, capturing date, time, conditions, volume, counterparty, and any authorisation or prohibition applied.

1. Conflict of interest policies and procedures shall ensure that transactions resulting in a position in or exposure to a crypto-asset effected by or on behalf of a connected person are subject to close scrutiny and monitoring where at least one of the following criteria are met:
  1. the connected person is acting outside the scope of the activities that the connected person carries out in its professional capacity;
  2. the transaction is carried out for the account of any of the following persons:
    the connected person;
    any person with whom a connected person has a family relationship or close links as referred to in Article 3(1), point (31), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114;
    a person from whom the connected person can expect to obtain a direct or indirect material advantage linked to the outcome of the transaction, other than a fee or a commission for the execution of the transaction.
2. For the purposes of the first subparagraph, point (b)(ii), person with whom a connected person has a family relationship shall mean any of the following:
  1. the spouse of the connected person or any partner of that person considered by national law as equivalent to a spouse;
  2. a dependent child or stepchild of the connected person;
  3. any other relative of the connected person who has shared the same household as that person for at least 1 year during the 5 years preceding the date of the personal transaction concerned.
1. In relation to the transactions referred to in paragraph 1, the policies and procedures shall ensure that:
  1. with respect to the decision to execute such transactions:
    such transactions are identified by or notified to the person responsible for the management of conflicts of interest before a decision on the execution of the transaction and its conditions is taken and that such transactions are documented;
    decisions to enter into such transactions are taken objectively, in the interest of each party;
    the conditions for the transaction are equivalent to the conditions that would have applied between independent parties for the same transactions in the absence of a conflict of interest.
  2. decision-making processes for entering into those transactions are set out and that thresholds, expressed as the volume of the transaction, above which such a transaction requires the approval by the management body are established;
  3. employees and members of the management body are aware of the rules applied on those transactions, and of the measures established by the crypto-asset service provider in relation to them;
  4. the crypto-asset service provider is informed promptly of any of those transactions;
  5. a record is kept of the transaction identified or notified to the crypto-asset service provider, specifying the date and time of the transaction, the conditions, its volume, the counterparty and any authorisation or prohibition in connection with that transaction.

Article 6 Policies and procedures on conflicts of interest in the context of personal transactions

Relevant recitals