Schlagwort: crypto regulation

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has approved new laws for Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs).

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The SBP plans to launch a CBDC within the next three years.
• The World Bank helped Pakistan design the new regulations.
• After the passing of the new laws, the SBP will issue licenses to EMIs for CBDC issuance.

The laws target non-bank entities offering digital payment instruments and are geared towards ensuring the timely issuance of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Pakistan’s CBDC plan

Pakistan joins the list of governments around the world that see CBDCs as a means to enhance fiat capabilities by bringing on board blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrencies. Following the launch of the new laws, Pakistan targets to launch its CBDC by 2025.

The new laws signed tonto place by the SBP were designed with the help of The World Bank.

In essence, the new laws enable prevention measures against laundering and terror financing while also offering consumer protection and reporting requirements.

Issuing licenses to EMIs for CBDC issuance

The SBP bank will be issuing licenses to EMIs to allow them to issue the CBDC.

While announcing the launch of the new laws, Deputy Governor of SBP Jameel Ahmad said:

“These landmark regulations are a testament of the SBP’s commitment toward openness, adoption of technology and digitization of our financial system.”

The Pakistani Finance Minister Asad Umar also said that promoting the digital economy using EMIs will safeguard financial institutions from cybersecurity threats.

Pakistan’s move towards CBDC comes after the neighbouring country India recently joined the League of Nations in the race to launch homegrown CBDCs as reported in our earlier news. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that it intended to launch a retail CBDC pilot by the end of 2022.

The post Pakistan signs in new laws to expedite the launch of CBDC appeared first on CoinJournal.

Russian lawmakers have come up with a plan that could lead to the creation of a Russian state-run crypto exchange. According to reports by Vedomosti, a popular Russian media outlet, the members of Russia’s parliament are working on a draft amendment that included the creation of a national crypto exchange.

The talks about the state-run exchange are said to have been ongoing since mid-November with sources saying that MPs discussed the issue with market participants likely from the Russian crypto industry.

One of the MPs, Sergey Altukhov, who is a member of the ruling United Russian Party was quoted saying:

“It makes no sense to say that cryptocurrencies do not exist. But the problem is that [crypto] circulates in a large stream outside government regulation. This represents billions of rubles worth of lost budget revenue – in the form of untaxed income.”

Why a national crypto exchange?

International sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine have hit Russian financial and trading firms hard. However, some companies in the country have been experimenting with crypto-powered transactions, allowing customers to bypass the SWIFT messaging system and banks.

But the Russian Central Bank is vehemently anti-crypto and purposefully refuses to allow crypto into the Russian economy.

Creating a national crypto exchange would therefore allow trading firms to pay and receive crypto payments from internal and foreign partners without restrictions. The exchange is expected to facilitate companies trying to supply domestic customers with imported goods.

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Crypto exchange FTX has lost its Australian licence a few days after it collapsed and filed for bankruptcy.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), announced on Wednesday, November 16th, that it had suspended the licence issued to FTX Australia, the Australian arm of the FTX exchange.

In its blog post, the ASIC said;

“ASIC has suspended the Australian financial services licence of FTX Australia Pty Ltd (AFS licence 323193) until 15 May 2023 after it was placed into voluntary administration on 11 November 2022. Until 19 December 2022, FTX Australia can continue to provide limited financial services that relate to the termination of existing derivatives with clients.”

Prior to its suspension, FTX Australia’s AFS license allowed it to create a market for derivatives and foreign exchange contracts for Australian-based retail and institutional clients. 

The suspension came a few days after John Mouawad, Scott Langdon and Rahul Goyal of KordaMentha were appointed as voluntary administrators of FTX Australia and its subsidiary FTX Express Pty Ltd, which operates a digital currency exchange that is not regulated by ASIC.

ASIC added that it is monitoring this situation closely and speaking regularly with international regulators and external administrators.

FTX currently risks losing its licence in Europe following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange. Last week, Bloomberg reported that the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) could seize FTX’s European licence.

The licence allowed FTX to operate in Europe and provide its services to customers all over the continent. 

These latest developments began to unfold after FTX collapsed and filed for bankruptcy last week. The cryptocurrency exchange was reportedly using customers’ funds to fund Alameda Research, its sister hedge fund.

The move was against FTX’s terms and conditions and sparked a series of events that saw the once mighty crypto exchange crumble to its knees. The events that unfolded also saw CEO Sam Bankman-Fried resign from his role.

The post The Australian Securities and Investments Commission suspends FTX Australia’s licence appeared first on CoinJournal.

Cryptocurrency‘s latest turmoil, coupled with what has happened in recent months, paints a picture of an ecosystem that could distabilise the global financial system, Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown has said.

According to the US lawmaker, crypto has been used for pretty much everything illegal, including outright theft and fraud. 

“The last thing” anyone would want to see, he noted, is the new financial product ending up crashing the financial system.

FTX collapse one of red flags

His comments at a hearing involving top US banking regulators come at a time when crypto is again in the spotlight following the collapse of major crypto exchange FTX. 

The company was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, who before his ‘empire’s collapse’, was a darling of Capitol Hill.   

But FTX’s implosion and reports of misuse of customer funds by Alameda Research, is already seeing increased activity across Washington and in other regions.

“The parallels to past financial crises throughout our history are troubling,” he said during the committee hearing, comments reported by The Block. The legislator, who has previously slammed crypto, continued to warn that there’s nothing “beneficial” to be gotten out of “hundreds of speculative cryptocurrencies.”

On what the outlook is across the legislative divide, Brown said:

“Many on my side of the aisle have raised warning flags about this. The last thing we need is for risky new financial products to crash our financial system. Thank you to those of you on the panel for your skepticism about cryptocurrencies.”

The post Crypto could ‘crash’ the financial system, US lawmaker warns appeared first on CoinJournal.

Binance received licence to operate in Cyprus, a few weeks after it gained similar approvals in Kazakstan and New Zealand.

Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, announced in a blog post on Thursday, that it has gained the necessary approval to operate in Cyprus.

The crypto exchange said it had been granted Class 3 registration as a Crypto Asset Services Provider (CASP) by Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commision (CySEC).

Thanks to this latest cryptocurrency news, Binance is now free to offer services, including spot, custodian, staking and card services in Cyprus.

However, Binance said it would offer these services in compliance with the requirements of the CySEC’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) rules.

The crypto exchange said its Binance Cyprus Limited was granted registration by CySEC on October 20, 2022.

Binance added that CySEC is also tasked with regulating anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) activities for cryptocurrency asset operations going on in the country. 

While commenting on this latest development, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), founder and CEO of Binance, said;

“Binance has some of the most thorough AML and CTF compliance policies in the industry. Recognition of the efforts we have made to be on the leading edge of compliance that our registration in Cyprus represents is a testament to that. Effective regulation that protects users and stimulates innovation is essential to the continued growth of our industry.”

Martin Bruncko, Executive Vice President Europe of Binance, also stated that;

“Registration in Cyprus is an important step in our European growth and is another sign of our commitment to the region. We look forward to building out our local team in Cyprus and helping to develop the local crypto ecosystem.”

This latest development comes barely two weeks after Binance received its licence to operate in Kazakhstan. 

Late last month, the cryptocurrency exchange also regulatory approval to enter the New Zealand market. 

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