The Financial Action Task Force are telling countries to tighten up any oversight they have about cryptocurrency and the exchange in general. There is a lot of growing concern about the international law and the enforcement agencies that are present. Some believe that cryptocurrency is being used to launder money and to fund crime.
Cryptocurrency Firms
As a result, cryptocurrency firms are now going to be subject to rules which will stop them from abusing any kind of digital coin. This includes Bitcoin. The global watchdog announced this on Friday and the move marks the very first regulatory attempt to try and constrain the cryptocurrency sector. The FATF are a coalition of countries that span from the US to China. They have told countries to tighten up their overall opinion on the industry and they are also going to try and stop any digital coins from laundering cash. The move reflects any growing concerns that the international law enforcement have and they are also exploring the idea of implementing even more measures too. Countries are now going to be forced to try and register and even supervise any currency firms and this includes exchanges too. They are going to have to carry out any detailed checks of their customers and they are also going to have to report any suspicious behavior. This applies to transactions too.
Europol
Simon Riondet is the head of Europol and he has stated that cross-border investigations are now more important than ever. He has told the Reuters news agency that they have seen more and more people using cryptocurrency to try and launder criminal funds and that this is not acceptable at all. Earlier this year, a Spanish drug cartel was broken up by Europol and that they have also laundered cash through various crypto ATMS. These are machines that give cryptocurrency for cash.
Riondet has also stated that the currency was used to try and transfer money across the border and that it was also used to try and handle any criminal transfers of lower amounts. These are much harder for the firm to detect. They have also stated that they have done some degree of research into the dark web too. This is where a lot of the payments have been made. Privacy coins such as Monero and everything else of the sort also give users the chance to conceal all of their details in their transactions. The move has been done by the FATF and they do bring about a high level of concern. Some people believe that the sector is championed by some and that everyone is trying to shake off government concerns. Central banks are also a huge threat as their status are really guarantors of the entire financial system.
Virtual Tokens
Facebook has also prompted some degree of criticism from those who regulate the currency because they have announced their plans to come up with a brand new crypto-coin known as the Libra. Three central bankers have also claimed some degree of oversight and they have also tried to make sure that they are not going to be jeopardizing the financial system.
Germany’s central chief is Jens Weidmann and he has stated that virtual tokens have been pegged to a huge range of official currencies. These are otherwise known as stable coins. They could potentially undermine banks if they do happen to become widely used.
New Measures
The FATF’s move is going to try and tighten the oversight marks and they are also attempting to try and establish a goal in their approach too. They are going to try and regulate 300 billion and they are also going to try and instill a patchwork of measures to try and make sure that everything is as regulated as possible. A few examples of this include the outright ban in China to do with currency, and the move from Japan to try and license exchanges.
Money Laundering
The Global Digital Finance is an industry body who work hard to try and represent any cryptocurrency companies across the world. They have chosen to welcome the FATF rules but Teana Baker-Taylor, who is the executive director has come out to say that they are going to ask firms to include details of the sender and even the beneficiary to try and make sure that every point can be met. They are also going to comply with any new regulations that are going to be present, and anything else that involves cryptocurrency. The challenge is asking for something that normally, a technical facility would try and do. There isn’t much data out there in terms of money laundering that actually involves cryptocurrency. When you look at the small scale of the market, you will see that money laundering probably isn’t going to be a fraction of the market and that more needs to be done in order to uncover the right data.
Sure, digital coins right now do not have a good level of anonymity and it was even believed that once, the movement can be traced right back to the blockchain technology. They are trying not to underpin this, but they are trying to identify loopholes and even beneficial ownership too. Some exchanges have very lax standards when it comes to checking details and they are also not very good at identifying the actual source of the funds.
