The European Union Council of Ministers Tuesday adopted updated rules on information accompanying the transfers of funds by extending the scope of the rules to transfers of crypto assets.
This will make it more difficult for criminals to circumvent anti-money laundering rules via crypto currencies, said the Council in a press release.
“Today?’s decision is bad news for those who have misused crypto-assets for their illegal activities, to circumvent EU sanctions or to finance terrorism and war. Doing so will no longer be possible in Europe without exposure. It is an important step forward in the fight against money laundering,” commented Minister for Finance of Sweden Elisabeth Svantesson, which holds the current EU Presidency.
Under the new rules, crypto asset service providers are obliged to collect and make accessible certain information about the sender and beneficiary of the transfers of crypto assets they operate, regardless of the amount of crypto assets being transacted.
This ensures the traceability of crypto-asset transfers in order to be able to better identify possible suspicious transactions and block them, said the Council.
Source: Kuwait News Agency