Financial Watchdog Rethinks AML Guidance for Banks and Bitcoin

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has taken note of the issues hindering partnerships between bitcoin businesses and banks.

At a Brussels meeting with industry figures last Friday, the anti-money laundering policy maker proposed a risk-based approach that ensures every digital currency business is evaluated on an individual basis.

A risk-based approach means that banks identify and assess the money laundering and terrorist financing risks they are exposed to, setting the appropriate mitigation measures accordingly.

Securing a banking partner has proved to be notoriously difficult for bitcoin businesses. FATF's proposal hopes to move the digital currency sector away from the current de-risking model which, according to industry insiders, has seen banks closing or denying bank accounts to bitcoin businesses, citing money laundering as a blanket term.

The policy maker discussed its plans at the plenary meeting to get the opinion of digital currency industry insiders. Siân Jones, the co-lead of regulation and banking group at the UK Digital Currency Association was in attendance.

She told CoinDesk:

Jones is of the opinion that FATF does not want to deride anti-money laundering, but is instead concerned in learning more about the issue to manage it in an "effective and appropriate way".

She concluded:

FATF 

also focused on the different approaches adopted by some countries to regulate and supervise digital currency exchanges – with the UK government recently announcing that it was planning to apply anti-money laundering regulations to digital currencies earlier this month.

Moderated by FATF co-chairs Jennifer Fowler and Juan Manuel Serrano Vega, the plenary meeting was intended to build on the Private Sector Consultative Meeting of 2014 and the publication of a report that established a conceptual framework of key definitions to form the basis for further policy development.

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