Japan Urges G20 Officials To Develop Common AML Rules For Cryptocurrencies

News, Regulation | March 14, 2018 By:

Japan will reportedly urge its G20 counterparts to concentrate on developing a common anti-money laundering (AML) strategy for cryptocurrencies during next week’s G20 meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The Group of Twenty (G20) is a leading forum of the world’s major economies that seeks to develop global policies to address today’s most pressing challenges. The G20 is made up of 19 countries and the European Union. The 19 countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

According to the G20 agenda, a meeting of finance and central bank deputies will be held on March 17 and 18. The chiefs – finance ministers and central bank governors – are meeting on March 19 and 20, with cryptocurrencies set to be on the agenda.

In a report by CNBC, an unnamed Japanese official said that due to the crypto market’s explosive growth, it makes sense to discuss the speculative risks of cryptocurrencies and their impact on the financial system at the international level. The official added that the Japanese government thinks it is better to focus on development of measures preventing AML instead of formulating regulations for cryptocurrency trading.

However, the official said the prospects for the G20 finance leaders to agree on specific global rules and mention them in a joint communique are low, given differences in each country’s approach.

“Discussions will focus on anti-money laundering steps and consumer protection, rather than how cryptocurrency trading could affect the banking system,” the official said. “The general feeling among the G20 members is that applying too-stringent regulations won’t be good.”

During the meeting, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a 37-nation group set up by the G7 industrial powers to fight illicit finance, will report to the G20 its findings on ways to keep cryptocurrencies from being used for money laundering.

Japan is one of the few countries worldwide to effectively legalize cryptocurrency as a payment vehicle. It carried out checks on several crypto exchanges this year after the theft of over $400 million from crypto exchange Coincheck in January. Last week, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) issued ‘Punishment Notes’ for seven crypto exchanges, ordering two of them to suspend business.