(As anticipated) the European Counsel has invited the Commission “to strengthen controls of non-banking payment methods such as electronic/anonymous payments, money remittances, cash-carriers, virtual currencies, … and pre-paid cards in line with the risk they present and to curb more effectively the illicit trade in cultural goods” as part of its response to the terrorist attacks in Paris of one week ago.

It’s not yet clear what this will mean in practice. We’ll be monitoring developments closely, and will blog again in due course.

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