The Spanish parliament voted in favor of a new law requiring citizens to report foreign crypto holdings. It seems that the government has decided to take "more control" over the cryptocurrency sector.

According to cryptonews, citing an official government release, under the new law, the Spaniards will be required to “report ownership and transactions with cryptocurrencies,” tokens “held both in Spain and abroad,” if transactions “involve Spanish taxpayers.”

According to the new measures, it will be “mandatory to inform” the tax authority about the annual declarations of assets and property. Thus, individuals will have to fill out forms with a detailed description of the "cryptocurrencies abroad" they have.

The bill, called the Tax Fraud Act, also contains other provisions aimed at combating tax evasion. Moreover, it gives the tax authorities the right to conduct spot checks on “homes and businesses”.

The bill still needs to be ratified after the Senate voted for it with a majority, but it has been under development since last year, when the Council of Ministers gave it the green light. This proposal has since been supported by Hacienda, Spain's tax authority.

Meanwhile, as El Economista notes in its material, some of the largest Spanish fund managers, including such giants as CaixiaBank and Santander, refuse to invest in cryptocurrency. The media reported that BBVA, Bankinter, Ibercaja and Unigest, operated by Unicaja Banco, have also ruled out adding crypto to their portfolios.

Jaime Martinez, one of the BBVA executives, notes:

    I'm not saying [adding cryptocurrency to our offerings] will never happen, I'm just saying we're not considering it right now. […] We are not going to complicate the lives of our clients with things over which we do not yet have proper control. […] Portfolio [managers] do not plan to move in this direction.