Regulatory entities in Taiwan and Australia recently announced the introduction of new measures to control the money laundering, the financing of terrorism and the cyber crimes related to the use of cryptocurrencies.
In Australia, the measures consist in the application of a law that involves the cryptocurrency exchanges, while Taiwan is preparing a regulatory project related to the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The measures were officially announced by the regulatory authorities of both countries as part of an effort to control the risks associated with the cryptocurrencies.
In the case of Australia, the official announcement was made by Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and the law entered into force something over a week ago, on April 3rd, 2018. For the first time, the cryptocurrency exchanges are comprehended by the new law. According to the statement given by Nicole Rose, the CEO of AUSTRAC, the new regulations were made with the consent of the Australian companies involved in the exchange of cryptocurrencies: ““It’s recognised that this reform will help protect their business operations from money laundering and terrorism financing, while regulation will also help strengthen public and consumer confidence in the sector. AUSTRAC now has increased opportunities to facilitate the sharing of financial intelligence and information relating to the use of digital currencies, such as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, with its industry and government partners. The information that these businesses will collect and report to AUSTRAC will have immediate benefit in the fight against serious crime and terrorism financing.”
As a consequence, since April 3rd, 2018, the cryptocurrency exchanges in Australia, as well as the companies operating in the cryptocurrency sector need to register with AUSTRAC until May 14th, 2018.
The goal of the new regulations is to allow the authorities to gather information about the use of the cryptocurrencies in the country.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Finance of Taiwan, announced the development of a project to whose goal is to regulate the transactions with digital currencies. The project was announced two days ago.
While the new project is being developed, the cryptocurrency exchange sector in Taiwan will still use the same measures to prevent money laundering as the traditional financial sector, based on the guide of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a non-governmental organization whose goal is to fight against the money laundering.
The Ministry of Finance of Taiwan assured the decision to develop a new regulatory project was a result of a consensus between various financial regulators, different state agencies, the central bank and the Financial Supervisory Commission of Taiwan.
The regulatory entity held a meeting with local cryptocurrency exchanges in Taiwan to discuss their self-regulatory measures including their know-your-customer (KYC) processes. Some of the participating cryptocurrency exchanges in the meeting were MaiCoin and BitoEX.
Recently, Yang Chin-Iong, the governor of the central bank of Taiwan, said the central bank would increase the efforts to monitor the cryptocurrency market and the risks associated with it. The governor also added the central bank was thinking of proposing to regulate the cryptocurrencies using the same Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules that apply to the traditional financial sector.
With the new regulations for the cryptocurrency sector, Australia and Taiwan join the list of countries that are currently in the process of regulating the transactions with cryptocurrencies.
