The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has established a set of priorities for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing policies.
Cryptocurrencies have been added to the list after the NSA expressed worry about their role in recent ransomware operations.
Bitcoin and other digital assets, according to the federal agency, are a favoured method of payment for illegal activity.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the United States has designated cryptocurrencies as one of its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) priorities.
FinCEN released its first-ever list of objectives for AML and CFT policy on June 30, with the goal of assisting financial institutions in meeting their regulatory requirements. The guidelines will be published in their final form within the next six months.
The FinCEN agency, which is responsible for monitoring and punishing money laundering and other financial crimes and is part of the Treasury Department, has identified cryptocurrency as one of its eight primary objectives.
Corruption, cybercrime, virtual currency concerns, terrorist financing, fraud, transnational criminal organization activities, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and proliferation financing are some of the top priorities.
Despite the fact that the list of goals is not linked to any rules, FinCEN will issue new regulations at a later date that will detail how financial institutions should include the aforementioned priorities into their risk-based AML programs.
The main concerns of the federal agency came after a number of high-profile ransomware incidents, including the Colonial Pipeline hack, in which the hackers demanded payment in cryptocurrencies despite the assets being returned subsequently. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) stated:
Treasury is particularly worried about cyber-enabled financial crime, ransomware attacks, and the exploitation of virtual assets, including the laundering of criminal revenues, which exploits and undermines their innovative potential.
Despite the fact that the new asset class is a “major financial innovation,” the agency believes cryptocurrencies are a preferred means of payment for a number of unlawful activities, including ransomware, illicit drugs, and even nuclear weapons ambitions./n
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