Global Regulations, 2nd October – Coinfirm compiles a list of regulatory and compliance happenings affecting our stakeholders in the last week.
Global Survey of Regulators and Crypto Industry Shows Opposing Views
A survey of global regulators and crypto industry insiders shows a wide opposing views on risks and self-regulations.
The survey, compiled in a report by the UK’s oldest defense and security think tank lays bare the difference where 63% of banks and 56% of governments saw digital currencies as a risk, while only 9% of people in the cryptocurrency sector agreed. All respondents believe crypto usage will increase within the next 5 year however. – READ MORE
Australia Earmarks A$6 Million For Blockchain Tests To Cut Compliance Costs
The Australian government has announced it will spend A$800 million on initiatives to enable the private sector to take their administration processes and regulatory compliance online, owing to vastly increased demand from changes coming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
A$6 million of which has been focused on testing blockchain-based technology solutions to cut the compliance time and costs of firms. The government is well known for advocating blockchain initiatives in government. – READ MORE
FinCEN Director Warns Banks of AML Crypto Importance
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) director Kenneth Blanco has warned banks of their AML risk.
His comments – “To be clear, exchanges are not the only ones with crypto risk exposure. These risks are not unique to money services businesses or virtual currency exchanges; banks must be thinking about their crypto exposure as well. These are areas your examiners, and FinCEN, will ask you about when assessing the effectiveness of your AML program.” – come after the FinCEN Files which have put a spotlight on the traditional finance sector’s lax AML policies. – READ MORE
SEC Says Compliant Crypto Exchanges Will Not Receive Sanctions
The US’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a memo to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) noting that cryptocurrency exchanges which track the legitimacy of blockchain assets throughout their life-cycle until sale on their platform will not receive sanctions. – READ MORE
Two US Blockchain Laws Become One
US lawmakers merged two bills promoting blockchain tech to ensure consumer safety as the ‘Digital Taxonomy Act’ and the ‘Blockchain Innovation Act’ are now under the ‘Consumer Safety Technology Act’, a piece of legislation that is already in existence focused on AI.
The ‘Digital Taxonomy Act’ stipulated training for federal agencies for scam tokens whilst the Blockchain Innovation Act was a request for a report on the benefits of blockchain technology to counteract fraud. – READ MORE
