The Bank of Korea (BoK), South Korea's central bank, has launched a cryptocurrency task force to explore the technology's effects on the financial system.



The bank said that the task force will see participation from eight departments, including the financial stability and monetary policy units, to study on the impacts of digital currency.

The announcement follows concerns raised in South Korea that the drastic growth in cryptocurrency prices could effect the traditional financial system.

Earlier this week, six unnamed banks in South Korea were scrutinized by the Korean Financial Intelligence Unit and the Financial Supervisory Service for their relationship with the country's bitcoin exchange ecosystem. The regulators indicated at the time that they were looking into whether the banks are complying with their anti-money laundering (AML) obligations when transacting with cryptocurrency exchanges.

In the past few days, the South Korean authorities and government officials have been holding talks with their Japanese and Chinese counterparts in order to formulate new rules for regulating cryptocurrency operations in the country.