The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has sent a request to six South Korean banks to reveal what anti-laundering measures they adopted and what guidelines they use to verify real names of participants of virtual currency transactions.
The US financial regulator sent a request to Woori Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, NH Nonghyup Bank and Korea Development Bank (KDB) via their New York branches.
“We have received an official letter from our New York branch. We are now considering whether it is ok to individually provide domestic data and six banks and the financial authorities will work together to deal with it,” an anonymous official from the banking industry revealed.
The New York State Department of Financial Services is eager to know the result of South Korean authorities’ investigation into anti-money laundering measures of South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges. It also asked South Korean banks to reveal their internal guidelines and regulations, including real name verification for digital currency transactions.
In the beginning of this January, South Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC) and Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced that they were inspecting six local banks that work with virtual currency accounts on whether they complied with anti-money laundering rules and verified real names of virtual account holders.