Guidelines for Preventing 'Virtual Currency Money Laundering' Extended

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] The financial authorities' administrative guidance to monitor financial transactions of cryptocurrency exchanges will be extended until the end of the year. The guidelines will be extended until the end of the year when the reporting and review of cryptocurrency exchanges are completed.

According to the financial authorities on the 13th, the Financial Services Commission extended the validity period of the "Anti-Money Laundering Guidelines Related to Virtual Currency" from next month 9th to the end of this year.

The guidelines require financial companies to verify whether their customers are virtual currency handling businesses, and if so, classify them as high-risk customers for money laundering and implement enhanced customer verification and financial transaction monitoring. This is also a measure to apply the revised Special Financial Transactions Information Act to cryptocurrency exchanges that have not reported to the Financial Services Commission.

Cryptocurrency exchanges must submit a report to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) by September 24th after meeting requirements such as opening real-name verified deposit and withdrawal accounts and obtaining information security management system certification. After reporting, they will be subject to supervision and inspection by the FIU.

However, a considerable number of cryptocurrency exchanges are expected to close down as they fail to meet the reporting requirements under the Special Financial Transactions Information Act. According to the Financial Services Commission, as of the 20th of last month, there are about 60 virtual asset exchanges in operation. Among them, only four currently operate with real-name verified deposit and withdrawal accounts issued by banks. Real-name verified deposit and withdrawal accounts are services that allow deposits and withdrawals only between the bank account of the verified trader and the same bank account of the cryptocurrency exchange, making it easier to identify user identity and transaction details.

The FIU considers the use of disguised accounts or accounts under another person's name as a violation of the Financial Real Name Act. Accordingly, from this month until September, a full investigation of disguised or third-party name collection accounts will be conducted monthly by financial sectors, and financial transactions will be refused or terminated.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.