Virtual Currency Regulations: Key Insights for the Payments Industry — Payments Pros – The Payments Law Podcast
Navigating New Compliance Challenges: The Impact of the Money Transmitter Modernization Act on Payroll Processing - Payments Pros – The Payments Law Podcast
We have written previously about the new administration’s significant shifts in its approach to criminal enforcement and prosecution of money laundering cases. Specifically, we wrote about shifts at the U.S. Department of...more
Money services businesses (MSBs), a category which includes money transmitters (e.g., PayPal and other payment facilitators), as well as administrators and exchangers of convertible virtual currencies (e.g., Bitcoin...more
Convertible virtual currency (CVC) mixing is in the crosshairs of U.S. national security policy. On October 19, 2023, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”)...more
U.S. regulators are signaling heightened expectations for anti-money laundering compliance within the crypto industry. Although FinCEN issued guidance in 2013 interpreting virtual currency “administrators” and “exchanges” as...more
On October 11, 2022, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) acted in parallel to issue the first joint action in the cryptocurrency market against Bittrex. Bittrex...more
Two recent guilty pleas involving a cryptocurrency exchange serve as a reminder to all money services businesses (“MSBs”)—including those ostensibly located outside the United States but that conduct business there—of the...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) has made clear that businesses engaging in certain activities involving virtual currencies are subject to registration,...more
The incoming Biden team will need to quickly address significant digital asset issues, including a major enforcement action and a significant proposed FinCEN rule initiated in the final days of the outgoing administration. ...more
Recently proposed regulations could present significant compliance burdens for the banks and money service businesses that engage in cryptocurrency transactions with unhosted wallets or wallets held in jurisdictions specified...more
A new proposal would subject financial institutions and exchanges to onerous recordkeeping and reporting requirements for certain digital currency transactions. In a surprise release in the waning days of the Trump...more
Just before the Christmas holidays, the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued proposed rulemaking entitled “Requirements for Certain Transactions Involving Convertible Virtual...more
On 18 December, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) at the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced highly anticipated and controversial new proposed requirements designed to mitigate illicit finance risks...more
On December 18, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a proposal to impose on banks and money service businesses (“affected institutions”) a new set of rules for digital currency transactions involving...more
On October 1, 2020, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an advisory to alert Financial Institutions (FI) relating to “predominant trends, typologies, and potential indicators of ransomware and associated...more
On October 19, 2020, The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced its first action against a bitcoin mixer: a $60 million civil penalty against Larry Dean Harmon. Harmon was the founder and operator of Helix...more
The prevalence, sophistication, and severity of ransomware attacks have increased anti-money laundering risks faced by financial institutions both as targets of ransomware attacks and as potential intermediaries in...more
Building off a 2018 alert outlining cyber threats generally, and following the federal indictment for money laundering of the founders of the offshore cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, on Oct. 8, 2020, the U.S. Department of...more
In response to the significant rise in ransomware attacks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and just in time for Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network...more
U.S. Developments - U.S. Federal Regulatory Developments - CFTC, FinCEN, and SEC Leaders Release a Join Statement on Digital Assets - On October 11, 2019, the heads of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”),...more
On May 9, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the US Department of the Treasury (FinCEN) issued guidance relating to how its regulations apply to certain businesses that transact in "convertible virtual currencies"...more
A few days before thousands of blockchain industry participants poured into New York for “Blockchain Week,” the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued guidance on virtual currencies...more
The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) this week approved an information security model rule package aimed at improving the cybersecurity posture of the 17,543 state-registered advisers. ...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is the U.S. Treasury Department bureau charged with monitoring financial transactions in order to combat domestic and international money laundering, terrorist financing and...more
• On October 11, 2018, FinCEN released an advisory to help U.S. financial institutions better detect potentially illicit transactions related to Iran. • The advisory describes how Iran attempts to access the international...more
Virtual currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have spawned many types of businesses that need banking services. Many banks "de-risk" -- do not provide banking services -- to these businesses. Many virtual currency...more