Today (Monday 11 July 2022) the Central Bank of Ireland issued a press release highlighting weaknesses in Virtual Asset Service Providers’ (VASP) AML/CFT Frameworks.

Accompanying today's press release is a bulletin in relation to VASPs, seeking to assist applicant firms to strengthen both their applications for registration and their Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Frameworks.

The Central Bank says while it seeks to anticipate and support innovation in the financial services industry, firms operating in novel areas must ensure their businesses will not be used to launder the proceeds of crime or to finance terrorism.  The Central Bank issued the bulletin to VASPs to assist them in strengthening their applications and frameworks.

Read more here, including an analysis by CompliReg.

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Cold day to be outside talking about the hot topic of #bitcoin and #cryptoassets / #digitalassets for Fintech Ireland with Will Goodbody of RTE, who also interviews Henrik Andersson, CFA (CIO Apollo Capital) and Lory Kehoe (Adjunct Assistant Professor, Trinity Business School) about their thoughts on #crypto as an asset class and regulation.

I am seeing:

1) a ramp up in scam investments, riding the epic wave of the #BTC price increase aimed at luring people into the FOMO (fear of missing out) opportunities; and

2) the loss of sight of the 'democratisation of financial services' and decentralised ethos' of #crypto in favour of speculative nature of 'assets' like bitcoin.

Don't read my comments as being negative on decentralisation and distributed ledger technology; they are leading to many interesting cost effective and time efficient applications.

Rather be wary of the bitcoin salespeople whose interests have noting to do with the " purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash [that] would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution" heralded in the abstract of the Nakamoto paper.

Or put another way, 'don't lose sight of the forest for the trees'.

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And follow Fintech Ireland on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/9349449

CompliReg, supporters of the Fintech Ireland Map, have written a short blog on the announcement (10th August 2020) that the Irish Government Cabinet has approved the publication of new draft rules which, if passed by both houses of Ireland's parliament, will strengthen existing Irish money laundering and terrorist financing laws to bring Ireland further into compliance with the 5th AML/CTF Directive.

Readers may recall that in July 2020, together with Romania, Ireland was fined €2 million for its delay in implementing the necessary legal changes to give effect to the 5th AML/CTF Directive.

This blog is particularly relevant for regulated #Fintech firms, such as payment services and emoney firms, and the soon to be captured cryptoasset / cryptocurrency / cryptoexchange / cryptowallet providers operating from Ireland.

More here - ​https://complireg.com/blogs--insights/new-irish-anti-money-laundering-rules-approved-by-government