About 15 countries plan to develop a crypto system to combat money laundering

Governments of about 15 countries, including Australia, Singapore and the Group of 7 (G7) members, have joined hands to develop a system to fight money laundering in cryptocurrencies.

The system would collect and share personal data on individuals who conduct cryptocurrency transactions, and would be managed by the inter-governmental body, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Nikkei Asian Review reported Friday.

“The goal is to draw up detailed measures by 2020, and to have the system up and running a few years later,” per the report.

Last month, there were reports that the Japanese government is leading the development of a SWIFT-like network for cryptocurrency payments to combat money laundering, and that the development will be monitored by the FATF.

The inter-governmental body recently released its final crypto guidelines, which compel exchanges to collect and transfer customer information. Later, the Group of Twenty (G20) also officially welcomed the guidelines.