International Standards For Anti-Money Laundering In The Crypto Market Expected In October

Earlier this week, Financial Times reported that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is prepared to unveil the global standards of anti-money laundering for digital currencies by next month of October.

Established in 1989, FATF is an international organization which monitors policies and rules to combat money laundering. FATF currently holds 2 regional organizations and 35 member jurisdictions under its control. Monitoring other illicit funding routes like terror financing also comes under the ambit of FATF.

FATF president Marshall Billingslea said that the agency is close to finalizing the worldwide standards and introduce them by next month. The president said that the newly revised standards are expected to fill the “gaps” and loopholes in the existing system. “It is essential that we establish a global set of standards that are applied in a uniform manner,” he said.

With cryptocurrencies gaining importance in the global financial market, the G20 nations requested for a “consensus across nations,” to introduce uniform standards. The FATF task force has been actively working on this matter, and so far, things seem to be moving as per the schedule.

Billingslea noted that despite digital currencies being highly volatile and risky investment instruments, the still present “a great opportunity.” However, the president explained the need to upgrade the existing AML standards as the current ones are “very much a patchwork quilt or spotty process,” which is “creating significant vulnerabilities for both national and international financial systems”.

The FATF already started its work on preparing binding rules for digital currency exchanges back in June 2018. The agency has been so far working on determining whether the existing standards for AML are appropriate to be applied to crypto exchanges.

Once that the new rules are approved, the FATF will also work on deciding the schedule of its implementation. In July, during a D20 meeting, the agency said: "We reiterate our March commitments related to the implementation of the FATF standards, and we ask the FATF to clarify in October 2018 how its standards apply to crypto-assets.”