By Staff Reporter
Bahrain’s Central Bank has issued draft guidelines for crypto and digital assets, Reuters reports on December 15.
The apex bank has begun a public consultation on draft rules for crypto exchanges and regulations for the licensing and supervision of crypto-asset services.
Rules would include measures aimed at regulating consumer protection, technology standards and cyber risk management, the news agency reported.
National regulators in the Middle East have been formulating frameworks aimed at promoting the growth of fintech.
The United Arab Emirates has released one of the most comprehensive frameworks for crypto assets in the world, as BAR has previously reported (see here).
In Asia, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has also decided to call all cryptocurrencies “crypto assets” and not “virtual currency” to avoid confusion with legal money, reported Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun over the weekend.
In Russia where the crypto assets are unregulated, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed that the cryptocurrencies are not money but property, or “other property” under Russian laws, according to a statement. This is in line with the previous (see here) made by the Russian Justice Minister back in May.
In Europe, Dutch central bank plans to impose a licensing regime for crypto exchanges, reports Dutch newspaper DeTelegraaf on Dec 11.
The key objectives of the new licensing regime would be to prevent money laundering through cryptocurrencies to carry out illicit financial activities and fund terrorist activities.
Similarly, Japan has implemented a law in April obliging cryptocurrency exchanges to report suspicious transactions.
