The Financial Superintendence of Colombia presented a project that seeks to bring clarity to how links between banks and virtual asset service providers (VASPs) will be handled in the future. The document defines certain key concepts and determines a set of prerequisites that banks need to verify before accepting virtual asset service providers as customers.

Virtual Asset Service Providers to Be Regulated in Colombia

Regulation is becoming a key goal for countries in Latam, where cryptocurrency adoption is growing at significant rates. Now, the Financial Superintendence of Colombia has presented a document that seeks to establish norms regarding the requirements cryptocurrency exchanges and custody providers must meet to be serviced as customers by banks. The project defines key concepts such as virtual asset service providers (VASPs), and virtual assets in the scope of the regulation.

In the same way, it establishes that virtual asset service providers will have to be connected to the UIAF, the financial intelligence office of Colombia, and have a plan of action to deal with money laundering and terrorism financing attempts that might potentially be made using their platform.

The project also makes an indirect reference to compliance with the travel rule promoted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). It states banks must verify these VASPs have:

The technological and operational capacity to monitor transactions with virtual assets, as well as to obtain, preserve and transmit the information of the originator and the beneficiary of each transaction.

More Requirements

The proposal establishes that the VASPs will have to be able to present clear information to their customers about the services they offer and the risks associated with these services, the costs associated with these services, and the virtual assets present on their platforms.

VASPs will also have a plan to deal with operational and cybersecurity-related risks to handle possible hacks or platform problems that might affect how their services are delivered to their customers. Also, banks will have the obligation to separate their responsibilities from those of VASPs, telling customers that only they and these platforms are responsible for VASP-related problems.

The proposal also establishes restrictions regarding investments. It states:

The supervised entities authorized to capture resources through deposit products or funds must ensure that the operations of deposit and withdrawal of resources in financial products of deposit or funds in the name of a VASP are carried out only through non-face-to-face channels.

The proposal is still in the discussion stages, and the Financial Superintendence will receive suggestions about it until August 12.

What do you think about the VASP regulation proposal in Colombia? Tell us in the comments section below.

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