G20: “will regulate crypto currencies in accordance with FATF standards”
The G20 countries signed a joint declaration in Buenos Aires on Saturday promising to regulate crypto currencies and combat their use for money laundering and terrorist financing in line with the standards of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The FAFT was founded by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as a political organisation to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The FATF began discussing how binding rules for the global exchange of crypto currencies could be introduced at a pre-G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting in July and issued a statement stating that by October the current anti-money laundering standards for the crypto currency sector should be applied.
At that time, the Group had stated that its Member States should continue to monitor the crypto industry, claiming that crypto currencies do not pose a threat to the fiat money system. The Forum had mandated its regulator, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), led by Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, to develop a framework for monitoring the cryptosector.
On Saturday, a new joint declaration was officially signed by all G20 countries, acknowledging that the rapid pace of “digitisation” of the world economy requires “necessary reforms”. With regard to crypto currencies or “crypto assets”, as referred to in the document, the G20 has agreed on a regulatory approach in line with the FATF standards. Section 25 of the official statement reads:
We will regulate crypto-assets to combat money laundering and terrorist financing in accordance with FATF standards and consider further measures if necessary.
In addition, the countries should cooperate and monitor the rapid digitalisation of the world economy, also for tax reasons. An excerpt from Section 26 reads:
We will continue to work together to find a consensus-based solution to the impact of economic digitisation on the international tax system with an update in 2019 and a final report in 2020.
The G20 leaders therefore also seem to be paying particular attention to the need for an international framework for the taxation of transactions in crypto currencies to prevent tax evasion.
