In a new initiative, South Korea is working towards an organizational change that would create a dedicated department for establishing and regulating crypto policies with the crypto regulation agreement. Working in harmony with the Chinese authorities, the policies have been chalked down. In an interview with the Korea Times, the South Korea’s Financial Services Commission representative disclosed that it is a part of a significant restructuring that will create an exclusive higher level department to handle policy initiatives for the Blockchain industry.
Financial Innovation Bureau will be the department of policy regulations and will help build a stronger and regulated industry for cryptocurrency in South Korea. The department will be overseeing the disruptive technology regulations like fintech and big data that are leading to more innovation but are currently facing a lot of challenges in acceptance.
Korea and China Collaborate on FIB Regulation Policy
In a recent meeting of Yoo Kwang-Yeol, the Senior Deputy Governor of FSS, Korea met the higher officials of Insurance Supervision and Management Committee of the Bank of China and created the first draft of the agreement according to which they both will generate and regulate the polices for FIB. The meeting spokesperson stated that the joint initiative aims to regulate money laundering, which is becoming more prevalent as ICOs and blockchains increase.
The new crypto regulation agreement, notably, recognizes blockchain as an emerging technology and consequently adds it to the list of tax-benefit industries.Furthermore, the authorities plan to let the real-name system—first implemented at the end of January 2018—expire according to the contract terms. However, stakeholders have subsequently called for a renewed agreement to strengthen anti-money laundering measures. At present, only four exchanges—Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit, and Coinone—benefit from the real-name contract, supported by three nationalized banks offering the real-name verification service. Ultimately, the initiative places strong emphasis on establishing a unified crypto regulation framework designed to support and nurture the industry’s long-term growth.
