Crypto Exchange Group Eyes ‘Bulletin Board’ System for FATF Compliance: Coinbase Exec
Top cryptocurrency exchanges are expected to release a white paper next month detailing a method to ease compliance with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) “Travel Rule.”
- First reported by CoinDesk and later confirmed by Coinbase’s chief compliance officer, Jeff Horowitz, at the Global Digital Finance event on July 15, the project aims to help the crypto industry with the compliance burden of the FATF’s guidelines on anti-money laundering.
- BitGo and Coinbase are members of the working group.
- The white paper will set out a framework designed to increase exchange transparency and setting out how they could share data over a peer-to-peer (P2P) network and a type of “bulletin board,” Horowitz said at the event, as reported by The Block on Monday.
- Participants would share addresses on the board and, if another member claims an address, the two entities could then share data P2P to keep personal information out of the reach of hackers.
- The Travel Rule, part of FATF's guidance issued to global regulators on “virtual asset service providers” (VASPs) in June 2019, requires crypto businesses to collect identifying data on both a transaction's sender and receiver, and pass that information on with transactions.
- The rule is designed to limit terrorist activity and money laundering by forcing the identities of individuals on amounts over $1,000 to “travel” with the transaction between the sender and receiver.
- The Gemini, Kraken and Bittrex exchanges are said by The Block to also be participating in the Travel Rule working group.
- Elsewhere, a new messaging standard was introduced to help cryptocurrency firms comply with FATF's guidance in May, creating a uniform model for the data that must be exchanged between VASPs.
- In June, FATF reviewed the Travel Rule in a plenary meeting and released a report that examined the progress countries and the private sector had made in implementing its guidance on digital assets.