In a statement published by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) today, it said that the US is not fully compliant with its crypto recommendations, and that there are still some minor deficiencies.

The FATF gave an example that US-registered money services businesses (MSBs), keep detailed records for transactions of $3,000 or more, instead of the recommended $1,000. It claims this higher threshold is not clearly supported by low money laundering or terrorist financing risks.

The agency further stated that the US does not specifically identify higher risk virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The FATF said these VASPs are rather covered under the broader MSB regime. According to the FATF, it is not entirely clear whether the current system is sufficiently risk focused. This is because, the FATF claims only 30% of all registered convertible virtual currencies (CVC) providers have been inspected since the year 2014.

The FATF rates countries on 4 levels using the crypto “recommendation 15”, in the following order: compliant, largely complaint, partially compliant and non-compliant. Based on the aforementioned, the financial watchdog rates the US as largely compliant.

Implemented in June 2019, the recommendation 15 provides guidelines for crypto businesses that prevents the misuse of virtual assets for money laundering and terrorist financing. Crypto businesses are therefore expected to obtain and hold required and accurate originator information and required beneficiary information on virtual asset transfers.

They are also supposed to submit the above information to any available beneficiary financial institution immediately and securely. Upon request, the crypto businesses are expected to make these documents available to appropriate authorities.

Notably, the FATF did not publish compliance ratings for the US alone. Revised compliance ratings for all countries were also published and made available on their website.

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