Preamble Recitals

An annual supervisory fee should be established to cover the actual and estimated costs to be incurred by the European Banking Authority (EBA) when performing supervisory tasks in the context of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, including its overheads. The annual supervisory fee should also cover the costs incurred by competent authoritiesmeans one or more authorities:designated by each Member State in accordance with Article 93 concerning offerors, persons seeking admission to trading of crypto-assets other than asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens, issuers of asset-referenced tokens, or crypto-asset service providers;designated by each Member State for the application of Directive 2009/110/EC concerning issuers of e-money tokens; to whom tasks are delegated by the EBA.

The crypto-assetmeans a digital representation of a value or of a right that is able to be transferred and stored electronically using distributed ledger technology or similar technology; market is dynamic and often fast-evolving, therefore the estimate as to the number of issuersmeans a natural or legal person, or other undertaking, who issues crypto-assets; likely to fall within the scope of the EBA’s supervisory tasks is inherently uncertain. Additionally, the supervisory priorities may change from time to time in light of events. Against this backdrop, it is of the highest importance for the EBA, and the competent authoritiesmeans one or more authorities:designated by each Member State in accordance with Article 93 concerning offerors, persons seeking admission to trading of crypto-assets other than asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens, issuers of asset-referenced tokens, or crypto-asset service providers;designated by each Member State for the application of Directive 2009/110/EC concerning issuers of e-money tokens; to whom tasks may be delegated by the EBA, to have the necessary flexibility to estimate their likely expenditure from year-to-year, including the possibility to reassess the fees to be levied in relation to the EBA’s supervisory tasks from one year to another.

Fees charged for the EBA’s activities related to issuersmeans a natural or legal person, or other undertaking, who issues crypto-assets; of significant asset referenced tokens (ARTs) and issuersmeans a natural or legal person, or other undertaking, who issues crypto-assets; of significant e-money tokens (EMTs) should be set at a level such as to avoid a deficit or a significant accumulation of surplus. Where a significant positive or negative budget result becomes recurrent, the level of the fees should be revised.

The number of significant ARTs and significant EMTs under the supervision of the EBA will be identified only after the application of Titles III and IV of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. It is therefore not possible to already determine fixed annual supervisory fees since neither the exact amount of supervision task expenditure nor the exact number of significant ARTs or significant EMTs will be known before the framework is fully established. Moreover, the number of issuersmeans a natural or legal person, or other undertaking, who issues crypto-assets; of significant tokens may change from time to time, and thus it is not possible to pre-determine the exact amount of fees in the delegated act.

In line with the principle of annuality and the principle of full cost recovery, the annual supervisory fees should be calculated on the basis of the estimated direct and indirect costs to be incurred by the EBA to perform its supervisory tasks. The annual supervisory fees should be adjusted every year to match the estimated costs. At entity level, the annual supervisory fee should be calculated based on a fully proportionate approach.

As the costs of the supervision tasks depend on the intensity of the supervision, the fees between issuersmeans a natural or legal person, or other undertaking, who issues crypto-assets; of significant ARTs and issuersmeans a natural or legal person, or other undertaking, who issues crypto-assets; of significant EMTs are not expected to be fully linear. Therefore, in accordance with the principle of proportionality, an activities-based estimates and monitoring system should be established that allows for the estimated costs to be attributed, respectively, to issuersmeans a natural or legal person, or other undertaking, who issues crypto-assets; of significant ARTs and issuersmeans a natural or legal person, or other undertaking, who issues crypto-assets; of significant EMTs,