“We Will Never Withdraw from the Korean Virtual Asset Market”…Foreign Exchanges Are Making Provisions for the Specific Financial Transaction Information Act

Foreign exchanges operating in Korea will also be subject to the Specific Financial Transaction Information Act from next year OKEx Korea will temporarily suspend the KRW trading…They are preparing a real name account.

Binance plans to continue its business by meeting all requirements of the Specific Financial Transaction Information Act [Financial News] The amendment to ‘Specific Financial Transaction Information Act’ was officially passed at the cabinet meeting and the government is establishing regulations for the virtual asset industry. Accordingly, foreign exchanges that provide virtual asset trading services in Korea are also making provisions for the Specific Financial Transaction Information Act.

This is because if the amended Specific Financial Transaction Information Act is enforced in March next year, foreign exchanges that are currently running business in Korea must complete acceptance of report within six months from the enforcement date. Since they have not been issued a real name account from a commercial bank, they have provided KRW trading services with the corporate account for bill collecting. However, they are required to obtain a real name account before September next year in accordance with the obligation of ‘separation of trade history by user’ specified in the amended Specific Financial Transaction Information Act.

■OKEx Korea will temporarily suspend the use of a corporate account

As the amendment to Specific Financial Transaction Information Act, which includes obligations for AML of virtual asset service providers, is enforced from March next year, foreign exchanges that are engaged in the virtual asset business in Korea are preparing to meet the requirements for acceptance of a report of the Specific Financial Transaction Information Act.According to related industry on the 23rd, foreign exchanges that have corporations in Korea and provide virtual asset trading services, such as OKEx Korea and Huobi Korea, have begun preparing to meet the requirements for acceptance of a report as virtual asset service providers required by the amended Specific Financial Transaction Information Act.

OKEx Korea, a Korean corporation of OKCoin, a Chinese virtual asset exchange, temporarily suspends the KRW trading service currently being provided from the 6th of next month until the enforcement of the Specific Financial Transaction Information Act. Starting on the 18th, all deposits in KRW have been suspended, and users of OKEx Korea must withdraw all KRW they hold on the exchange until the closure of the KRW market.

An official of OKEx Korea said, “If the Specific Financial Transaction Information Act is enforced, a real-name verified deposit and withdrawal account must be issued, but we are operating the exchange with a corporate account and suddenly cannot change it to a real name account. So, before the specific enforcement ordinance is established, the system should be improved to check the operating system.”

“Since the virtual asset traders in Korea prefer to use real-name verified accounts rather than corporate accounts for KRW deposits, operating corporate account is inefficient,” he added. He also said, “Because traders have deposited KRW to our corporate account, it cost a lot to prevent voice phishing, and withdrawal of virtual assets was difficult for users, so we decided it to provide better services to customers.”

Since July of last year, Huobi Korea, which has strengthened its internal AML policy such as withdrawal restriction and KRW deposit screening, is currently undergoing an information security management system (ISMS) certification, which is one of the requirements for acceptance of a report as a virtual asset service provider. They plan to proceed with the virtual asset trading business in Korea by meeting real-name verified deposit and withdrawal account issuance requirements to be specified through the enforcement ordinance in the future.

■”Binance is making provisions for the Specific Financial Transaction Information Act to advance into the Korean market”

Although Binance has not yet started a virtual asset exchange business in Korea, it has recently registered as a corporation and started entering the Korean virtual asset market. Also, it plans to proceed with the business by meeting the requirements for acceptance of a report as a virtual asset service provider required by the amended Specific Financial Transaction Information Act.

Binance issued KRW-pegged stablecoin earlier this month to secure virtual asset investors in Korea. The industry expects that Binance’s trading service for Korean investors will be launched, as the best alternative plan for the exchange that cannot provide the country’s fiat currency trading service is to issue stablecoins pegged with the fiat currency.

Binance LTD, a Korean corporation of Binance, considers virtual asset trading service as one of several business areas. In addition, they are closely reviewing the requirements of the amended Specific Financial Transaction Information Act to run a virtual asset business in Korea.

Kang Ji-ho, Co-CEO of Binance LTD said, “The amended Specific Financial Transaction Information Act is mandatory to register any business related to virtual assets in Korea.” “Because we have a year before the Specific Financial Transaction Information Act is enforced, we are preparing internally to meet the requirements for acceptance of a report required by the Specific Financial Transaction Information Act,” he added.

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