Treasury Secretary Won’t Let Crypto Become Next Swiss Bank Accounts
By CCN Markets: U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the G7’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF) organization will never let crypto assets “become the equivalent of secret numbered accounts.” Mnuchin was addressing a plenary session of the G7 initiative aimed at combating money laundering and terrorism financing.
The U.S. Treasury Secretary was referring to secretive bank accounts commonly offered in Switzerland as well as other offshore financial hubs where the identity of the account holder is kept secret and a client is only identified by a code word.
Mnuchin also disclosed that he had convened a working group comprised of various regulators including the Federal Reserve with the goal of ensuring that crypto is only used for legitimate purposes.
Crypto Businesses Treated as Banks
It’s official. Cryptocurrency businesses around the world will need to follow the rules of the conventional financial sector. They will need to:
“Identify who they are sending funds on behalf of, and who is the recipient of those funds” https://t.co/kfhn9urCG7
— Yaya J. Fanusie (@SignCurve) June 21, 2019
Mnuchin pointed out that an interpretive note that was adopted earlier this week by the FATF will require cryptocurrency exchanges, crypto-based remittance and payments firms, and other crypto-related businesses to implement bank-like anti-money laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism procedures. The FATF Global Network has been meeting in Orlando, Fla. since June 16.