FATF urges enhanced compliance with virtual asset standards to combat crypto-based crime

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has called on countries to strengthen their regulation of virtual assets and ensure compliance with the 2018 standards for virtual assets.

At its latest plenary session in Paris, the FATF said many countries had failed to develop and were not complying with the recommendations, almost five years after they were developed. He added that most countries have not implemented “travel rules” that mandate the retention of originator and beneficiary information, among other details of virtual asset transactions.

Watchdog said the lack of regulation of virtual assets allows criminals and terrorist financiers to abuse the system for their own needs.

According to the FATF, an analysis of ransomware attacks found that these criminals primarily use virtual assets to launder ransom payments due to their “easy access” to virtual asset service providers around the world. was shown. Regulators said jurisdictions with weak anti-money laundering and terrorist financing checks are of particular concern as they create opportunities for criminals to exploit.

The FATF said countries need to strengthen cross-border regulatory cooperation and share more information to effectively address the issue. Additionally, national authorities should develop tools to track and recover stolen virtual assets. This will require cooperation with cyber security and data protection authorities.

The FATF said it had established a new roadmap to “strengthen” implementation of its standards on virtual assets, which FATF member countries and FSRB countries took to regulate virtual assets and virtual asset service providers in the first half of 2024. We will report on the measures.