FINLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Jon Hautamäki, Max Atallah and Mikael Huhtala, Nordic Law
6.2.2 Stablecoin Regulation Fiat-backed stablecoins are regulated in Finland under MiCA, which provides a bespoke framework rather than retrofitting stablecoins into the existing payments regulatory framework. Prior to MiCA, certain stable- coins were regulated under the Payment Institutions Act as electronic money, meaning the transition to MiCA represented an evolution of an existing regula- tory approach rather than an entirely new departure. Under MiCA, EMT issuers must hold either a credit institution licence or an EMI licence from the FIN-FSA. This requirement means that EMT issuers are sub- ject to both MiCA’s specific stablecoin requirements and the broader prudential and conduct requirements applicable to their underlying licence type. The launch of Paxos’s USDG stablecoin through Paxos Issuance Europe Oy, a Finnish EMI, demonstrates the viability of this framework in practice, with USDG being among the first fully regulated global USD-denominated sta- blecoins issued under MiCA in the EU. The MiCA framework for EMTs is more prescriptive than the pre-existing payments regulatory framework in several respects, including detailed requirements on reserve asset composition, custody arrange- ments, redemption rights and operational govern- ance. CASPs providing custody or transfer services for EMTs face the additional complexity of the MiCA and PSD2 overlap identified in the EBA’s June 2025 no-action letter. 6.2.3 Backing Assets MiCA imposes detailed requirements on the reserve assets backing EMTs and ARTs. EMT issuers must maintain a reserve of assets that is at all times at least equivalent in value to the outstanding EMTs in circu- lation, denominated in the same official currency as the EMT references. Reserve assets must be held in secure, low-risk instruments and must be legally seg- regated from the issuer’s own assets, ensuring they remain available for redemption by holders at all times. EMT holders have a statutory right of redemption at par value at any time, meaning the issuer must be able to meet redemption requests on demand. MiCA explicitly prohibits EMT issuers from paying interest to EMT holders, reflecting the policy objective of dis-
tinguishing EMTs from interest-bearing deposits and preventing regulatory arbitrage with the banking sec- tor. Reserve assets must be held with credit institu- tions or, subject to conditions, invested in highly liquid financial instruments with minimal market and credit risk. The custody and safekeeping of reserve assets are subject to ongoing supervisory oversight by the FIN-FSA. 6.2.4 Special Considerations MiCA introduces enhanced requirements for EMTs and ARTs that are considered to pose systemic risk, designated as significant tokens by the European Banking Authority on the basis of criteria including the size of the user base, transaction volumes, cross- border reach and interconnectedness with the finan- cial system. Significant EMTs and ARTs are subject to direct supervision by the EBA rather than the national competent authority, meaning that a Finnish EMT issuer whose token reaches systemic significance would transition from FIN-FSA supervision to direct EBA oversight. Significant token status triggers additional require- ments including enhanced liquidity requirements, stricter interoperability obligations, more stringent governance standards and enhanced reporting obli- gations. Issuers of potentially significant tokens must therefore structure their operations with these esca- lating requirements in mind from the outset, as the threshold for systemic designation may be reached relatively quickly for widely adopted stablecoins with cross-border distribution across the EEA. 7. Tokenisation and Real-World Assets 7.1 Treatment Finland has not enacted a standalone statute specifi- cally governing the tokenisation of real-world assets. In line with the principle of technology neutrality reflected in Finnish and EU financial regulation, the regulatory treatment of tokenised assets is deter- mined by the nature of the underlying asset and the rights represented by the token rather than the techni- cal method of issuance.
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