The Senate of the United States of Mexico approved on the afternoon of December 5 the Law to Regulate the Financial Technology Institutions that make life in the country, a legal document that includes the use and adoption of cryptocurrencies in different areas of the economy.
The law establishes that cryptocurrencies -which they name as virtual assets- may function as "representations of a verifiable digital value", but they will not have the character of legal tender in Mexico despite being accepted by the public. Likewise, all digital currencies that circulate legally require the authorization of the Mexican regulatory entity, Banco de México.
*** (The FinTech Law) Includes the use of virtual assets such as cryptocurrencies or bitcoins, with prior authorization from the Bank of Mexico; in this way it allows the Financial Technology Institutions to operate with these, which are understood as representations of a verifiable digital value that have no legal tender, but generate units for their exchange. ***
*** Senate of Mexico ***
This financial legislation is the first in Latin America to devote directly to Financial Technology. Especially starting from what could be called a "flexible" regulation, since it is only constituted by a "general regulatory framework".
The idea is that taking into account the rapidity with which technological advances tend to occur, the legal framework is not obsolete in a matter of months, a fact for which only minimum rules are established by which institutions must be governed, thus leaving provisions for second order of the requirement.
Following this same line, an Interinstitutional Committee was created that, headed by the Banking and Securities Commission, together with the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and the Bank of Mexico, will intervene in the decision-making process of greater relevance, especially in the face of the sanctions stipulated and the granting of authorizations.
We must bear in mind that the law for Mexican financial technologies is a legal framework focused on opening the doors from the regulations to the ITF (Financial Technology Institutions) that make life in the country; reason why the legislation includes regulations for companies that carry out operations related to financing and investment, as well as services of "issuance, administration, redemption and transmission of funds of electronic payment" according to the official page of the Senate of the nation.
The Senate clarified that this new legislation modifies at least nine financial and financial laws of the country, a fact that was cataloged by some senators as a sample of the change that crosses the country. In this regard, Senator Marcela Guerra Castillo pointed out that this opens the opportunity to handle remittances, third country labor force, as FinTech services, a common use case for cryptocurrencies.
** We are in the 21st century and the FinTech Law facilitates the inclusion of all people, including those who have been outside of banking services and will be able to access the system in a framework of certainty. Remittances that are the third source of income in the country can be managed through Financial Technology services. **
*** Marcela Guerra Castillo - Senator, Mexico ***
It is important to bear in mind that the approval of the Senate does not mean that the FinTech Law comes into force, as it will now be discussed by the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico. We will have to wait to see how the development of legislation for cryptocurrencies continues.