thecoinrise.com
The global anti-money laundering agency has finalized its regulations for the cryptocurrency industry. Plans are on the ground to publish the guidelines next week.
Marcus Pleyer, President of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), disclosed this at a press meeting on Thursday.
Speaking about the completed crypto guideline, Pleyer said, “These guidelines that we finalized for a risk-based approach to virtual assets and investments will be published next week.”
Reports suggest that the agency’s attempt to cover fast-moving innovations like decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) delayed the guidelines up until this time.
The Journey to the Anti-Money Laundering Guideline
In 2019, the FATF first published this guideline, demanding similar compliance seen in traditional finance. The guidelines included a travel rule, which requires that VASPs have and communicate information on parties involved in a transaction. Consequently, some financial jurisdictions had started implementing these guidelines, with the FATF already reviewing their operations.
Just like other regulations in the financial industry, these guidelines have been a long-time coming. The FATF has begun plans towards regulating the global cryptocurrency industry for years. However, the anti-money laundering guidelines took shape at a March plenary when it issued draft guidance for virtual asset service providers (VASPs).
Also, the FATF agreed at another plenary meeting in July to clarify five different issues in the forthcoming revision. Including more clarifications on peer-to-peer transactions, the guidance explains the terms of the travel rule. The new anti-money laundering guidelines also shed more light on stablecoins, as well as licensing and registration of VASPs. The fifth issue the guidance addressed is what VASP means. Pleyer confirmed that the November edition addresses these areas.
However, Sian Jones, Senior Partner at XReg Consulting, feels that the new anti-money laundering guideline may make full compliance challenging. The FATF expects different nations and the corporate world to implement FATF’s standards in the shortest possible time.