In June 2019, the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) introduced its revised set of standards for virtual asset service providers. The document establishes the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements that regulated VASPs — the term mainly referring to cryptocurrency trading platforms — must eventually implement in their day-to-day operations. The guidelines are framed as recommendations, and the FATF leaves it to the participating nations’ governments to develop their own regulations in accordance with suggested principles.
The watchdog has also set a 12-month review timeframe to monitor the public and private sectors’ progress in putting the revised standards into effect. Following the review period’s expiration in June 2020, the FATF put together a report summarizing a year’s worth of legislative and compliance work. Here is how both the FATF and industry participants evaluate today’s state of international anti-money laundering standardization as it relates to digital assets.