Welcome to another edition of Veriscope’s Weekly Regulatory Recap. The crypto regulatory landscape continues to stay heated with the EU co-legislators finally agreeing to Crypto AML provisions. So, without further ado, let’s dive straight into it.
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After months of discussions, EU co-legislators finally agreed on a provisional Anti-Money Laundering (AML) agreement based on the FATF’s Travel Rule, albeit with slight modifications.
Under the provisional agreement, Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) will have to collect the personal information of both the originator and the beneficiary of the crypto transfer.
And unlike the Travel Rule, where the minimum ceiling limit for the regulation to kick in is $1000, there is no such limit in the EU’s version. Once implemented, VASPs will have to collect Travel Rule data for all crypto transactions in the EU, no matter the amount. That said, the provisional agreement won’t apply to the crypto transfers to unhosted wallets.
Although the announcement made last Wednesday does not mention the exact date of the launch, it states that the aim is to roll out the EU-wide AML laws before the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA). And ECB President Christine Lagarde said during her recent testimony to the EU parliament that MiCA is likely to be implemented by 2024.
Read more about it here: LINK
Financial Action Task Force, the global financial crimes watchdog, recently published a report highlighting the need for speedy adoption of the Travel Rule globally.
As per the report, only 11 countries have adopted the Travel Rule, a quarter of them will soon pass the law, and one-third have made no progress.
Citing increasing concerns around the growing use of digital assets, NFTs, and DeFi, the financial watchdog noted in its report that the “countries that have not introduced Travel Rule legislation should do so as soon as possible, and FATF jurisdictions should lead by example.”
Visit here to read more about FATF’s recent report demanding countries to fast rack Travel Rule adoption: LINK
The surge in investments in crypto assets in India and globally during 2021, often termed the “Breakthrough Year of Cryptocurrencies,” attracted the attention of the country’s leading financial authorities, including the central bank and the finance ministry. And amid such careful observation by the authorities, the market tanked considerably in 2022, raising concerns about regulatory ambiguity around digital assets.
The recent high-profile executive to comment on digital assets is Rajnish Kumar, Former Chairman of State Bank of India, the country’s largest bank by assets. He welcomed the government’s decision to tax digital assets and deduct TDS as he believes these actions from the government will help allay fears around the use of digital currencies for money laundering & terrorism financing.
While speaking about crypto regulations, Mr. Kumar said that “This (crypto regulation) is an area where no single country would be able to bring out the laws (alone). It requires international cooperation. For banking, we have the Bank For International Settlements. Similarly, for crypto, we need to have an international understanding, and a framework has to be established.”
Read more about it here: LINK
Morocco is on the verge of completing the crypto regulatory framework and will make it public soon, as per Abdellatif Jouahri, Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) governor. Bank Al-Maghrib is the central bank of Morocco.
Mr. Jouahri also said that the central bank had coordinated with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank before drafting the regulations. As such, consultation with global financial bodies has enabled Morocco’s central bank to set a new benchmark regarding crypto regulations.
Read more about it here: LINK
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There’s one thing absolutely clear amid the current crypto market downturn: the financial regulators & governments around the world are 100% determined to bring crypto-assets within the regulatory net. It means Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) must begin complying with local and international digital asset regulations, as there’s no way around it.
The most crucial piece of global digital asset regulation is FATF’s Travel Rule. And even if the country in which the VASP is based hasn’t adopted the Travel Rule, it is better to stay prepared. After all, with FATF pushing for faster Travel Rule adoption, all countries will begin enforcing it sooner or later.
The first thing that VASP will need to comply with the Travel Rule is a Travel Rule Solution Provider (TRSP), and Veriscope is the best one out there. Check it out here: https://www.veriscope.network/ and click here to contact our BizDev team for a discussion.
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