Financial Services Commission to Establish Corporate Virtual Asset Participation Guide by Q3

The Financial Services Commission plans to establish detailed guidelines related to corporate participation in virtual assets by the third quarter.

On the 12th, the Financial Services Commission held a meeting with the virtual asset industry and experts at the Government Seoul Office, chaired by Vice Chairman Kim So-young. This meeting was a follow-up to the announcement made at the 3rd 'Virtual Asset Committee' held last month, where they pledged to activate communication channels with the industry and market.

Attendees included the Director of Digital Financial Policy and the Planning Director of Institutional Operations at the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). From the industry, DAXA (Digital Asset Exchange Joint Council), Korean Won market exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb), coin market exchanges (Viblock, Wavve Ridge), and virtual asset custody and management companies (KODA, KDAC) participated. Additionally, the Korea Federation of Banks and real-name account issuing banks such as K Bank and Shinhan Bank were present.

During the meeting, opinions from the industry were discussed regarding the roadmap for corporate participation in the virtual asset market and the detailed guidelines under review, as well as other proposals related to virtual asset policies. Vice Chairman Kim stated, "Through task forces (TF) involving related agencies, we will push forward with establishing detailed guidelines for non-profit corporations and virtual asset exchanges by April, and for listed companies and professional investors by the third quarter."

Vice Chairman Kim also explained that some improvements are necessary during the process of discussing detailed guidelines for each corporation, including virtual asset transaction procedures, methods, disclosures, and reporting. First, he urged banks and virtual asset exchanges to devise thorough and meticulous anti-money laundering measures. He said, "Concerns about money laundering related to virtual assets have been increasing recently," and added, "It is necessary to review whether enhancements are needed in corporate customer verification and transaction monitoring systems by reflecting international anti-money laundering standards."

Regarding virtual asset exchanges and DAXA, he requested the establishment of a smooth IT system to respond to the expansion of the virtual asset market and to consider strengthening security measures to protect user assets against external threats such as hacking.

He also emphasized that corporations participating in the virtual asset market must have appropriate internal control systems. He explained, "Please support the establishment of minimum internal control standards related to the types of virtual assets that non-profit corporations can receive and the operation of review bodies, as well as the trading processes and transaction disclosures of professional investors."

Industry representatives attending the meeting expressed their commitment to actively cooperate to ensure the smooth implementation of the 'Corporate Virtual Asset Market Participation Roadmap.'

The Korea Federation of Banks plans to actively cooperate with exchanges and related institutions to enhance anti-money laundering systems and support the preparation of practical detailed guidelines necessary during the corporate market participation process. DAXA will also support strengthening anti-money laundering systems for virtual asset service providers tailored to the characteristics of each participating corporation. They pledged to improve the ongoing self-regulation to protect users and stabilize the market.

The Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Private Education plans to actively cooperate in policy implementation by investigating domestic and international cases related to virtual asset accounting treatment, cash-out procedures, and internal control systems within universities, and providing guidance to university sites.

Additionally, the meeting raised various proposals and opinions, including ▲ the need to promote competition in the virtual asset market due to market expansion such as corporate participation ▲ enhancing the global competitiveness of domestic virtual asset service providers ▲ the necessity of collaboration among banks, exchanges, and custody/management companies due to corporate market participation ▲ and future prospects of the domestic virtual asset market.

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