7 months ago
The South Korean authorities has uncovered important Know-Your-Customer (KYC) violations connected Upbit, the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
On Nov. 14, section media reports indicated that the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Financial Services Commission identified these issues during a regular concern licence renewal reappraisal for Upbit. The regulator has recovered betwixt 500,000 and 600,000 imaginable KYC violations connected the speech truthful far.
KYC is simply a process for verifying the individuality of customers to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) laws. This typically involves registering existent names and submitting valid recognition documents.
The FIU revealed that immoderate Upbit users provided inadequate recognition for their KYC registration. In immoderate cases, accounts were opened with IDs that had blurry names and registration numbers, rendering the identities unrecognizable. This raises concerns that these accounts could beryllium utilized for wealth laundering oregon different illicit activities.
Under South Korean law, companies recovered violating KYC regulations whitethorn look fines of up to 100 cardinal won (approximately $71,600) per violation. Given the standard of the violations, determination is speculation astir the imaginable fiscal punishment Upbit whitethorn face.
[Editor’s Note: At an mean of 550,000 imaginable violations, this could theoretically magnitude to $39 cardinal successful fines should the missive of the instrumentality beryllium followed.]
Additionally, the violations could hold Upbit’s licence renewal process, which is presently nether review. According to the Korean Special Financial Transaction Information Act, integer plus operators indispensable renew their licenses each 3 years.
Upbit applied for renewal successful August, but the support whitethorn beryllium postponed arsenic the FIU assesses each lawsuit individually and determines due actions.
Meanwhile, this caller contented comes astir a period aft South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) revealed its intent to analyse Upbit’s marketplace dominance. The authorities noted that the speech makes up astir 20% of the 22 trillion won deposits connected K Bank which could beryllium harmful for the fiscal instauration successful the agelong term.
The station South Korea investigates Upbit’s KYC violations amid marketplace dominance concerns appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.
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