The Financial Services Commission has extended the guidelines for financial companies to strengthen monitoring of financial transactions in cryptocurrency exchanges (exchanges) until the end of this year.
In accordance with the Act on the Reporting and Use of Specific Financial Transaction Information (Special Act), cryptocurrency exchanges must report virtual asset operators to the Financial Services Commission by September 24. interpreted in terms of
According to the financial authorities on the 13th, the FSC has extended the guidelines for preventing money laundering related to virtual currencies until December 31st.
Regarding the background of the extension, the FSC said, “For virtual currency (cryptocurrency) transactions with high risk such as money laundering, financial companies are used as a medium for the transaction, so financial companies, etc. This is to continuously implement the things that must be followed to do so,” he explained.
The guidelines include information on how financial companies should check exchanges, report suspicious transactions, and refuse transactions if there is a high risk of money laundering.
The FSC extended these guidelines until the end of the year in order to force financial companies to strengthen monitoring until management and supervision of exchanges are fully implemented in accordance with the Special Provisions Act.
According to the Special Act, cryptocurrency exchanges must report virtual asset operators by September 24. Exchanges that have been reported are inspected by the Financial Supervisory Service, and the review is conducted by a review committee formed by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Financial Services Commission. As it may be difficult to apply the Special Payment Act until this process, the guideline, which was originally scheduled to be applied by July 9, will be extended to continue the management and supervision of the exchange.
In particular, the government judges that there is a possibility that some exchanges may steal customers’ money if the closure of the exchange becomes a reality, and it is also a measure to monitor this.
At the same time, the FSC is expected to start discussing the exemption standards for banks in relation to the issuance of real-name accounts.
In accordance with the Special Provisions Act, the exchange can file a business report only after meeting the requirements such as ISMS certification and issuance of real-name accounts. However, as banks are not issuing real-name accounts due to concerns about anti-money laundering risks, there is a possibility that many of the 60 known exchanges will go out of business.
Therefore, the FSC is expected to discuss exemption standards including commercial banks within the Task Force (TF), which plans to operate the FIU as the main axis.
An official from the banking sector said, “I understand that there is a demand for the bank’s exemption standards for real-name authentication accounts.”
