The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Thursday called on states to speed up the implementation of rules to better control transfers of crypto-assets, which are increasingly used to finance terrorism and money laundering.
Since the publication of its recommendations on the subject three years ago, the Gafi, an intergovernmental organization created in 1989 to define standards in terms of fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorismfinds in a report published Thursday that only limited progress has been made to strengthen national regulations.
The organization focused in particular on the Travel Rules, which obliges the sending financial institution to transmit certain information on customers and transactions to the financial institution receiving these transactions. In 2015, it recommended extending these rules to crypto-asset service providers, for transfers from a value of 1000 dollars. However, a report carried out by the Gafi with a panel made up of 98 States and regional organizations dedicated to the fight against money laundering shows that only 29 of them have such regulations in placeand that only 11 actually apply it.
This demonstrates the urgent need for jurisdictions to accelerate the implementation and enforcement (of rules) to combat the diversion of crypto-assets for criminal and terrorist purposes, insists the Gafi.
The organization also notes that the private sector has made efforts to develop technical solutions to make these checks possible, even if these actors must improve the interoperability between these solutions in order to avoid holes in the racket of checks.
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In the European Union, the FATF recommendations on the tracking of crypto-asset transfers are in the process of being adopted, as part of a new anti-money laundering package.
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