EU Commission Wants Increased Oversight Over Bitcoin as it's "Used by Terrorists"
FinanceMagnates
Published Feb 03, 2016 10:10AM ET
EU Commission Wants Increased Oversight Over Bitcoin as it's "Used by Terrorists"
By Avi Mizrahi
Another high ranking European bureaucrat is again talking about cryptocurrencies as a tool used by terrorists without presenting any evidence or research on the matter. The European Commission is proposing a number of updates to the rules they want to rush through for the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, only introduced last year, using the recent attacks in Paris to advance this aim.
Under the banner of confronting emerging threats to European national security, the vice president of the commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, says: "We want to improve the oversight of the many financial means used by terrorists, from cash and cultural artifacts to virtual currencies and anonymous pre-paid cards, while avoiding unnecessary obstacles to the functioning of payments and financial markets for ordinary, law-abiding citizens."
As was widely expected in the industry before, according to the new rules revealed at this time, bitcoin exchanges will have to comply with tougher anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, adhere to know your client (KYC) procedures and no longer support anonymous transactions.
Assuming the commission actually believes cryptocurrencies are terror funding funnels, further steps might be coming as people can simply trade off-exchange for nefarious or other reasons. However last week, the commission’s Olivier Salles indicated that the EU executive body prefers not to create new regulations specifically for the field as it might hurt innovation.
Original Source
Get The News You Want
Written By: FinanceMagnates
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.