The Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, reported its delegates had come to an agreement on an action plan “to drive timely global implementation” of global standards on cryptocurrencies. In a Feb. 24 publication, the FATF said the plenary for the financial watchdog — consisting of delegates from more than 200 jurisdictions — met in Paris and came to a consensus on a roadmap aimed at strengthening “implementation of FATF Standards on virtual assets and virtual asset service providers”. According to the task force, in 2024 it will report on how FATF members have moved forward on implementing the crypto …

Japan is expected to enact new rules on money transfers to prevent the use of crypto for money laundering, according to local news agency Nikkei. The changes will bring Japan up to date with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations. An amendment to the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds will be introduced in the National Diet on Oct. 3 that will add crypto to the so-called travel rules on money transfer, Nikkei reported. The rules will be amended to require exchange operators to collect customer information in transactions involving cryptocurrency and stablecoins, as they already do for …

Crypto-friendly digital payments giant Paypal has been added to the Travel Rule Universal Solution Technology (TRUST) network, joining a host of big names in crypto that have moved to comply with digital asset travel rules. The announcement comes two months after the payments giant rolled out infrastructure enabling users to transfer, send and receive digital assets between PayPal and other wallets and exchanges in June this year. Prior to that, users were only able to buy and sell crypto within Paypal following the firm’s initial jump into the sector in October 2020. Now you can easily use your crypto with …

ING Group, a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation, has spun out its digital asset business Pyctor to multi-asset trading infrastructure firm GMEX. GMEX has acquired ING’s institutional-grade digital asset custody solution Pyctor in a multi-million dollar deal, the companies said in a joint announcement on Monday. The Pyctor offering compliments GMEX’s MultiHub service, an institutional cross-platform business launched last year with the mission to bridge the gap between centralized finance (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), GMEX CEO Hirander Misra told Cointelegraph. Pyctor expands MultiHub with a number of digital asset-focused capabilities, including smart contract features, post-trade custodial and …

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) reported that 11 out of 98 responding jurisdictions have started enforcing its standards on Combating the Financing of Terrorism, or CFT, and Anti-Money Laundering, or AML. In an update released Thursday on the “Implementation of the FATF Standards on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers,” the FATF reported the “vast majority” of jurisdictions assessed by the organization’s Global Network since June 2021 “still require major or moderate improvement” in AML/CFT compliance in accordance with the Travel Rule. According to the FATF, countries moving towards implementing these requirements made “limited progress” over the last …

Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo has partially vetoed Bill No. 697, dubbed the “crypto bill,” saying it requires more work to better fit Panama’s financial regulations. President Cortizo previously warned in May he wouldn’t sign the bill unless it included additional Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules after Panama’s National Assembly passed the crypto bill in late April 2022. Local media outlet La Prenda obtained a copy of the 32-page veto, reporting the president wrote it’s “imperative” the cryptocurrency laws conform to new regulations recommended by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) outlining “fiscal transparency and prevention of money laundering.” President Cortizo has …

We have all been there. You see something, hear something, or feel something, and want to share that feeling or observation with someone else. Do you pick up the phone? Send over a text? Record a voice note? Humans thrive in our shared experiences: a captivating concert, the winning goal of a sports match, waking up to watch the sunrise. There's something fulfilling about having an experience and being able to share it with someone in real time. And due to technology, we can do that, even if another person, call them our counterpart, is halfway across the world. So …

When times are tough — as in the pandemic — enterprising human nature goes into overdrive. People seek out alternative ways to make money. That could be one of the reasons why cryptocurrencies skyrocketed in popularity in the last few years, driven in part by large numbers of people sitting at home wondering how to beat low-interest rates and rising inflation. Where there’s cash, however, there are also criminals. Bad actors are experts in human behavior and see building momentum and increased crypto traffic as a huge opportunity, knowing that many newer investors may not do their homework. Investors might …

Forty crypto companies cosigned an open letter to the European Parliament, European Commission and other principal EU institutions with a call to ensure common-sense regulation, standardized compliance procedures and an innovation-friendly business environment. An open letter on behalf of the international Web3 community and “businesses across Europe,” shared with Cointelegraph by one of the signatories, went out to EU institutions on Tuesday. The industry players expressed their concerns over some recent EU-level regulatory initiatives: “We wish to urgently convey our concern with proposed EU laws that threaten the privacy of individuals as well as digital innovation, growth and job creation …

The Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, reported that many countries, including those with virtual asset service providers (VASPs), are not in compliance with its standards on Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML). In a report released Tuesday on the "State of Effectiveness and Compliance with the FATF Standards," the organization said 52% of the assessed jurisdictions in 120 countries had “adequate laws and regulatory structures in place” to assess risks and verify beneficial owners of companies. In addition, the FATF reported that only 9% of countries were “substantially effective” in this area. “Countries need to …

South Korean crypto exchanges have reached the government-mandated deadline to come into compliance with the so-called Travel Rule, but not all industry players are pleased with the measure. Starting today, Korean exchanges will flag any crypto transfers worth more than roughly $821. Transfers higher than that value will be restricted to user-verified wallets and a select number of exchanges that have adopted their anti-money laundering system. The Travel Rule is a set of guidelines issued by the international financial watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) designed to help authorities track the movement of virtual assets between virtual asset service providers …

The seizure by the U.S. Department of Justice of $3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) lost during the 2016 hack of Bitfinex’s cryptocurrency exchange has all the ingredients of a Hollywood film — eye-popping sums, colorful protagonists and crypto cloak-and-dagger — so much so that Netflix has already commissioned a docuseries. But, who are the unsung heroes in this action-packed thriller? Federal investigators from multiple agencies including the new National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team have painstakingly followed the money trail to assemble the case. The Feds also seized the Colonial Pipeline ransoms paid in crypto, making headlines last year. The Internal …