Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) held a focus group on cryptocurrency regulation today, May 21, streamed on Facebook Live. The hearing focused on the SEC’s approach to crypto-related businesses and fundraising through Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), local news outlet Siam Blockchain reports. Today’s focus group clarified that ICOs can only raise funds in the Thai baht and cryptocurrencies permitted by the SEC – those that “have enough liquidity and are not associated with money laundering.” Projects running ICOs, whose applications must be completed in 60 days, will also need to adhere to KYC and AML standards. Siam Blockchain also …
More than 7,000 people have signed a new petition against drafted cash restrictions in Australia, different drafts of which include and exclude digital currencies from proposed limits. Earlier this week, Robert Barwick, director at the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia, initiated a petition against the proposed "Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019" recently introduced as an explanatory draft by Australia’s parliament. The drafted bill specifically proposes banning cash transactions over 10,000 AUD ($6,900), including transactions involving digital currencies. Preventing cash usage in illicit activities? The impetus for the bill purportedly lies in the government’s desire to prevent …
Today’s Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) announcement focused on digital currency’s role in money laundering and heightened regulation, as Secretary Steven Mnuchin noted in his closing remarks. The FATF — an intergovernmental organization that focuses its efforts on fighting money laundering — is planning to strengthen control over cryptocurrency exchanges to preclude digital currencies from being used in money laundering and related crimes. U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said that the new measure will require that crypto assets service providers comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) procedures in the same way traditional …
U.K. businesses and analysts have hit back at government plans to regulate cryptocurrencies and related technology, describing them as a “blunt instrument approach,” British daily news outlet the Telegraph reported Monday, Oct. 29. Calls to step up the level of power the country’s finance regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has over cryptocurrency — which Cointelegraph reported on in September — allegedly focus on consumer protection and anti-money laundering (AML) policy. Now, a joint report from the British Business Federation Authority (BBFA), venture capital fund Novum Insights, and fintech expert Hazem Danny Al Nakib has urged caution about overly far-reaching …
Economic and financial affairs ministers from the European Union’s (E.U.) 28 member states will reportedly hold an informal meeting on the challenges posed by digital assets and the possibility of tightening regulations, Bloomberg reported August 29. According to a draft note seen by Bloomberg, participants will discuss a general lack of transparency and the potential for cryptocurrency to be used for tax evasion, terrorist financing and money laundering at a September 7 meeting in Vienna, Austria. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has previously warned customers about Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), citing a lack of investor understanding and problems …