Italian financial institutions are looking for new ways to apply distributed ledger technology (DLT) and are laying the groundwork for the advent of Markets in encrypted assets (MICA) control, Italian president Ignazio Visco said at a meeting of the Italian Institute of Financial system Research (Assiom Forex) on February 4.

Visco suggests that DLT may give benefits such as cheaper cross-border transactions and a more efficient financial system. The Central Bank of Italy is "committed to identifying sectors where DLT can contribute to financial stability and consumer protection".

Visco indicated that he would like to see policies and regulations that sort out the market for the sale of encrypted assets and separate high-risk tool services that separate network resources from production and business activities and organizational sites. Separate from other tool services that bring tangible benefits to economic development:

"the spread of the latter can be promoted by establishing rules and controls similar to traditional financial systems that have already been put in place; in turn, it is important to clearly block the former."

Visco specifically mentioned that "encryption assets that have no real value" are the former category.

Visco said that Italian financial institutions have diligently developed and designed this technology and standard framework from an European and international perspective. It also works with CONSOB, the Italian financial market regulator, and the Ministry of Finance of the economy to run "authorization and regulatory activities" on MICA.

Italy recently levied a 26% income tax on transactions in encrypted assets worth more than 2000 euros ($2150). However, Italian taxpayers can choose to pay a tax of 14% on their encrypted assets from January 1. The selection aims to encourage taxpayers to apply for his data assets.

Mr Visco may have only 2 per cent of Italian homes with encrypted assets and says such ownership is "not average".