Finance Monthly December 2019 Edition

40 www.finance-monthly.com FINANCIAL INNOVATION & FINTECH - CRYPTO INDUSTRY Crypto’s kryptonite? In guidance released in June 2019, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) revealed its latest standards for mitigating money laundering and terrorist financing. The 200 global jurisdictions committed to FATF recommendations are required to comply with Recommendation 16 aka the “travel rule”. What this means for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) registered or licensed within FATF member countries is that they will be required to exchange and hold personally identifiable information (PII) to each other when transferring crypto assets. Many in the cryptocurrency industry have baulked at this and other instances of increasing regulatory oversight, but could this actually be the push the crypto industry needs towards mainstream adoption in the financial market? Michael Ou, CEO of CoolBitX, a blockchain security company and creator of the first hardware wallet that enables bluetooth-to-smartphone pairings, shares his thoughts on what needs to be done to bridge the gap between the mainstream market and cryptocurrency industry. BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THE MAINSTREAM FINANCIAL MARKET AND THE CRYPTO INDUSTRY Michael Ou - CEO of CoolBitX