The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has a new president as
Germany took over the presidency from China. The intergovernmental
organization also highlighted the need for more guidance on
cryptocurrencies as many countries have not yet fully implemented its revised crypto standards. Another review has also been announced.
Germany Now Leads FATF
The FATF
has a new president, Dr. Marcus Pleyer of Germany, who succeeded
Xiangmin Liu of China. Pleyer serves as Deputy Director General in
Germany’s Ministry of Finance. His two-year term as the president of the
anti-money laundering watchdog began on June 1.
Pleyer presented
his objectives at the lastest FATF virtual plenary, which took place on
June 24 and published on Wednesday. Regarding the organization’s “new
standards on virtual assets,” he declared: “The German Presidency
intends to build on this work, focusing on the opportunities that
technology can offer, by launching an initiative to monitor risks and
explore opportunities.” Compared to China, Germany is much more
crypto-friendly; the country began regulating the industry early this
year and at least 40 banks in the country have reportedly expressed interest in offering crypto services.
At
the plenary, the FATF also revealed the outcome of the 12-month review
it conducted on how each country implemented its new cryptocurrency
standards. Overall, “both the public and private sectors have made
progress in implementing the revised FATF standards, in particular in
the development of technological solutions to enable the implementation
of the ‘travel rule’ for VASPs [virtual asset service providers],” the
intergovernmental organization detailed.
While insisting that
there is currently no need for revised standards on crypto assets, the
FATF “did highlight the need for further guidance on virtual assets and
VASPs.” The FATF believes, “This will help members of the FATF global
network, many of whom have not yet fully implemented the revised
standards, to make the necessary progress,” noting:
The FATF will continue its enhanced monitoring of virtual assets and VASPs by undertaking a second 12 month review by June 2021.
The
subject of stablecoins was also discussed at the plenary, “particularly
those that have the potential to be mass-adopted,” often referred to by
regulators as “global stablecoins.” An example of a global stablecoin
is the cryptocurrency libra,
originally proposed by social media giant Facebook. The FATF has
prepared a report on global stablecoins for the G20 as requested. The
anti-money laundering watchdog believes that global stablecoins “could
potentially cause a shift in the virtual asset ecosystem and have
implications for money laundering and terrorist financing risks.”
The
FATF further confirmed that its crypto standards apply to stablecoins
and no amendments to the standards are required at this time.
Nonetheless, it recognizes that “this is a rapidly evolving area and
that it is essential to continue to closely monitor the ML/TF [money
laundering/terrorism financing] risks of so-called stablecoins,
including anonymous peer-to-peer transactions via unhosted wallets.”
source link : https://news.bitcoin.com/germany-fatf-countries-crypto-standards/
