The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), the country’s financial intelligence agency and watchdog has reminded domestic cryptocurrency exchanges of new regulatory obligations that includes registration, effective today.
From today on the exchanges are required to meet anti-money laundering and and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) obligations, AUSTRAC said in a post on its website.
The businesses should adopt and maintain an AML/CTF program to identify, mitigate and manage money laundering and terrorism financing risks, identify and verify the identities of their customers, report to AUSTRAC suspicious matters, and transactions involving physical currency of $10,000 or more, keep certain records for seven years.
“A ‘policy principles’ period of six months will be in place from 3 April 2018. During that period, the AUSTRAC CEO can only take enforcement action if a DCE business fails to take ‘reasonable steps’ to comply,” the agency said.
Existing businesses providing DCE services will need to register by 14 May 2018. The cryptocurrency exchanges providing services without registration will face criminal offence and civil penalty.
Independent Reserve, the Australian digital currency exchange, has announced that it has become the first Australian exchange of its kind to be regulated by AUSTRAC, LeapRate reported.
Its CEO Adrian Przelozny believes the development will make the local market more attractive for investors.
By Siranush Ghazanchyan