FATF Reports Lackluster Global Adoption Of Cryptocurrency AML Requirements

The Financial Action Task Force ("FATF"), which is focused on leading global initiatives to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing, issued a report regarding the implementation of its recommended standards addressing AML concerns in the cryptocurrency space over the last four years. The report finds that "75% of jurisdictions assessed against the revised standards are only partially or non-compliant with FATF's requirements." The report describes many barriers to adoption of the FATF standards, including a lack of understanding of the cryptocurrency markets generally by many jurisdictions and the private-sector development of compliance tools that are limited in scope and that are not sufficiently interoperable to meet the FATF standards.