G20 Eyes October Deadline for Crypto Anti-Money Laundering Standard

G20 member countries are now looking at an October deadline for reviewing a global anti-money laundering (AML) standard on cryptocurrency, a document shows.

According to a statement issued on Sunday, finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20 member countries hosted a meeting during the weekend and reiterated their position on a plan for “vigilant” monitoring of cryptocurrencies.

The member countries further called on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – an intergovernmental body formed to fight money laundering and terrorist financing – to clarify how its existing AML standards can apply to cryptocurrency within three months.

“While crypto-assets do not at this point pose a global financial stability risk, we remain vigilant. … We reiterate our March commitments related to the implementation of the FATF standards and we ask the FATF to clarify in October 2018 how its standards apply to crypto-assets,” member countries said in the document.

As previously reported by CoinDesk, the G20 initially asked for an AML standard on cryptocurrency from the FATF in March, as part of its wider push for global regulatory recommendations on the issue.

Last month, it was reported that the FATF is planning to develop binding rules of AML for the world’s cryptocurrency exchanges, following a February report that the agency would step up its scrutiny effort over crypto money laundering.

Early last week, the Financial Stability Board, an organization focused on analyzing and making recommendations to the G20 on global financial systems, presented several key metrics for monitoring crypto assets ahead of the weekend meeting, in a response to the G20’s request in March of this year.

Meeting image courtesy to G20