By The middle eastern nation of Pakistan has plans to implement a new set of cryptocurrency regulations to better its track record in the battle against financial crime as per a report from Pakistani news outlet The Express Tribune reported on April 1.
The nation is hard at work to reduce its current levels of crimes such as money laundering, and terrorist financing and are set to introduce a new licensing system for electronic money institutions. As per the Pakistani news outlet Dunya News, crypto trading had been banned in the country since April last year.
The Express Tribune quoted unnamed sources as to the new initiative stating:
“These regulations will help combating money laundering and terrorism financing while it will also help regulation of digital currency throughout the country.”
A planned ceremony pertaining to the introduction of the new regulations will take place at the offices of The State Bank of Pakistan, the nation’s central bank on Monday and will the federal minister for finance Asad Umar and the banks governor Tariq Bajwa in attendance.
As per the unnamed sources, this move was in part a reaction to demands from the international monitoring body – the Finance Action Task Force or FATF, which has on multiple occasions expressed concerns about the role of cryptocurrency in terrorist financing.
Earlier this year in February, the FATF further argued that Pakistan, up to this point, has made inadequate progress in their processes to combat the phenomenon.
Reuters quoted a statement:
“Given the limited progress on action plan items […] the FATF urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan, particularly those with timelines of May 2019.”
However, it was just last week that Pakistan’s regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SECP), announced plans to take action against nine companies who have been accused of utilising crypto in illicit activities.
“Such schemes, offering hefty profits and incentives can deprive the unsuspecting public of their hard-earned money who fall prey to the inducements,” an accompanying statement read and also stated:
“It is further clarified that a mere registration of a company with SECP does not mean that it can get involved in unauthorised and unlawful activities.”
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