Paraguay is taking a closer look at its crypto industry in light of the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) guidance on virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The country's head of anti-money laundering (AML) efforts announced a nationwide audit last week to help create domestic crypto regulation.

CoinDesk reported that FATF's guidance, released in June of this year, further urged the country to develop crypto standards since it expanded AML benchmarks to include virtual assets in Recommendation 15.

In response, the head of AML, the Secretary for Preventing Money and Property Laundering (SEPRELAD), is mandating VASPs to register with the government and have some degree of AML and counter-financing terrorism procedures. With these measures, FATF compliance is expected before the close of 2020.

Data obtained from the nationwide survey of VASPs will be used to measure aspects of the crypto market in Paraguay, such as degree of adoption, complexity and size, to the end of drafting regulation for such a market, according to Secretary Minister Christian Villanueva.