FinCEN Releases Guidance And Advisory On Activities Involving Virtual Assets

The US Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued guidance on how its regulations apply to money transmission involving convertible virtual currencies (the FinCEN Guidance) and an Advisory on Illicit Activity Involving Convertible Virtual Currency (the FinCEN Advisory). Together, the FinCEN Guidance and FinCEN Advisory clarify how existing anti-money laundering (AML) laws and regulations such as the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) apply to virtual currencies and provide indicators of suspicious activity related to virtual currency.

Regulators around the world have issued guidance documents with respect to AML risk and virtual currencies. For example, the Financial Action Task Force¹ recently issued its Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Currencies (the FATF Guidance). The FATF Guidance seeks to identify money laundering and terrorist financing risks posed by virtual currencies and recommends certain implementation requirements for effective