- The corresponding decision was made by the Ministry of Finance of the country
- The department expanded the law on AML measures to the cryptocurrency industry
- All CA service providers are now required to report any suspicious transactions to the authorities
Yesterday, March 7, the Ministry of Finance of India published a decree. It talks about expanding the scope of the Money Laundering Prevention Act (PMLA) of 2002. In particular, he now requires service providers in the field of Central Asia (VASP) to transfer all information about suspicious transactions to the department.
This data will be collected and processed by the Financial Intelligence Unit of India (FIU-IND). What does this mean in practice? Customers of service providers have effectively lost their complete anonymity.
An account holder suspected of money laundering or other illegal activities may be placed under arrest. At the same time, his transactions in the blockchain will serve as an evidence base.
Changes in the regulatory field caused a mixed reaction in the community. So, for example, the co-founder of India Blockchain Forum Sharat Chandra thinks this is the right step towards comprehensive market regulation:
“It obliges companies that deal with cryptocurrencies to comply with KYC, AML rules and conduct due diligence. A similar practice is followed by banking and financial counterparties.”
Trilegal Advisor Jaideep Reddy agrees, but only in part. He understands the need to comply with AML measures, but laments the possible outflow of business:
“The implementation of the new rules will require significant resources and time. Not all companies are ready to go for it.”
Despite the fact that India is among the top three countries in terms of the number of Web3 specialists, the attitude towards cryptocurrencies from the local authorities is more than cool. In particular, trading in digital assets was equated with gambling here.
