South Korea Releases Stricter Guidelines Concerning Anti-Money Laundering Activities

The regulatory framework for cryptocurrency in South Korea is slowly taking shape. According to a recent report by Cointelegraph, the country published a revised regulatory guidance concerning anti-money laundering (AML) activities involving cryptocurrencies.

The revision came in the wake of the on-site inspection by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) involving three domestic banks. These financial institutions were Hana Bank, Nonghyup, and Kookmin, which have been found to be providing banking services and virtual accounts to cryptocurrency exchanges.

The revised regulation dictates that these crypto exchanges be obligated to perform Enhanced Customer Identification (EDD) and Customer Due Diligence (CDD) to ensure the credibility of funding sources and trade transactions. If a company rejects this mandate or is incapable of providing data for customer validation, transactions concerning that party must be denied or terminated.

Authorities are trying to avoid the occurrence of criminal groups borrowing accounts from individuals to purchase large sums of money through a local exchange then withdrawing the money from a different account. This is the reason for the increased restriction for the CDD regulation.

Moreover, the guideline places responsibility on local crypto exchanges to ensure that foreigners aren’t using their services to buy and sell crypto assets and that criminals aren’t utilizing the personal accounts of their clients to launder money. The guidelines also encourage exchanges to remain vigilant about shady transactions and payment processing.

While the country is imposing these restrictions, it’s also trying to raise 230 billion won ($207 million) funding by 2022 for blockchain initiatives. The accumulated money is to be granted to 10,000 blockchain professionals and 100 companies to facilitate the growth of the crypto ecosystem.

South Korea has been hesitant to launch these regulations and initiatives as it feared the public will misunderstand its intention that the government is legitimizing the crypto market. However, due to two high-profile hacking incidents this month where a total of $68.5 million was stolen, the government finally decided it’s time to regulate crypto exchanges similar to banks to protect investors.