Despite Industry Pushback, G20 May Impose Stricter KYC Policy on Exchanges

It looks as if cryptocurrency service providers will have to adopt stricter know-your-customer (KYC) policies all across the world — and not everyone is happy about that.On February 22, 2019, the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) published a draft recommendation for strict and uniform anti-money laundering (AML) regulation for cryptocurrency service providers, to be finalized by June 2019. The G20 — the 19 most powerful countries in the world plus the European Union — had already agreed in December 2018 to accept the recommendation by this intergovernmental body responsible for setting guidelines to combat money laundering and other financial crimes. As such, the recommendation will affect cryptocurrency businesses and users worldwide.On May 6 and 7, 2019, in Vienna, the FATF met and spoke with cryptocurrency businesses as part of its annual private sector consultative forum, hosted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and chaired by the president of the FATF, Marshall Billingslea from the United States. Over 300 private sector representatives, including cryptocurrency companies, participated in the forum.In a publication addressing the event, the FATF speaks of “fruitful dialogue with a multi-stakeholder group of virtual assets market players.” Yet, despite public industry pushback, there has so far been no indication that the intergovernmental task force is about t...