Money-Laundering Task Force Wants Binding Rules for Crypto Exchanges

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental organization that develops policies to tackle money laundering, is planning to develop binding rules for the world's cryptocurrency exchanges, a report indicates.

According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, an unnamed Japanese government official said that the group aims to hold talks around the subject starting on June 24.

The move was apparently initiated by calls for a globally coordinated policy on cryptocurrencies from the world's economic leaders at the G20 meeting in March.

While current non-binding guidelines suggest some money-laundering controls for the industry – including that exchanges should be registered, suspicious activity reported and customers verified – it is currently at different nations' discretion as to whether and how they are implemented.

The FATF talks, according to the report, will also look at the effectiveness of the existing rules, their application to new exchanges and how any new system would work with nations that have banned crypto trading.

Japan – which passed a law in April 2017 recognizing cryptocurrencies as a legal method of payment and also set up a registration system for cryptocurrency exchanges – will take over leadership of the G20 in 2020. Reuters cites the official as saying the country's government intends to push for binding rules for crypto exchanges by 2019 or earlier if possible.

At the G20 meeting in March, member nations present agreed that issues with cryptocurrencies need to be examined, but that more information was required before any regulations could be proposed. As a result a deadline was set in July for recommendations on what data is required.

Further, in a report to the G20 the same month, another intergovernmental body, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), called for cooperation on studying the tax consequences of cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin and fiat currencies image via Shutterstock