Taiwan seeks to formally regulate bitcoin under anti-money laundering (AML) rules before the end of the year.
Chiu Tai-san, the country’s minister of justice, said at an anti-money laundering event on Friday that the nation seeks to have the legal framework ready before a visit to Taiwan by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering in November.
The group, which is an inter-governmental agency for the Asia Pacific region and works in a similar capacity to its global counterpart, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), will visit the country for a bilateral evaluation of existing AML efforts.
Wellington Koo, chairman of Taiwanese financial watchdog, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), who was also present at the event today, said that the current problem with bitcoin is «who has purchased it and who it is sold to».
Banks in Taiwan have already been ordered by the FSC to label bank accounts offered to bitcoin trading platforms as «high risk clients». Further, transactions through these accounts above a certain threshold are required to be provided to the regulator in a bid to prevent potential money laundering.
