Financial Services Commission Chair "Strict crackdown on virtual asset money laundering… expand travel rule to transactions of 1,000,000 won or less"

The Financial Services Commission has expressed its intention to strengthen the travel rule regulation, commonly referred to as the 'coin real-name system'.

Lee Eok-yeom, Chair of the Financial Services Commission, said on the 28th at the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)'s "19th Anti-Money Laundering Day" ceremony, "We will strictly punish money laundering acts that exploit virtual asset transactions," and "We will expand the travel rule regulation to transactions of 1,000,000 won or less."

The reason for strengthening the travel rule regulation is to prevent money laundering. Under the current travel rule, domestic virtual asset exchanges are required to collect information such as the sender's and receiver's names and wallet addresses when they receive deposit or withdrawal requests of 1,000,000 won or more, and by expanding the regulation to transactions under 1,000,000 won they aim to eliminate blind spots. The chair said, "We will prevent virtual asset transactions with overseas exchanges that have a high risk of money laundering."

Other regulations will also be strengthened. The chair said, "If someone has a criminal record for crimes such as drugs or tax evasion, they will not be able to become a major shareholder of a virtual asset service provider," and "We will supplement the system so that financial condition and social credit requirements are also confirmed in the registration review of virtual asset operators."

In addition, the FIU decided to introduce a "preemptive account freeze system" to prevent funds suspected of being linked to crime from being withdrawn during investigations. The chair said, "We will limit the target crimes to serious crimes affecting people's livelihoods, such as drugs and gambling, to minimize the side effects of account freezes and public inconvenience."

The Financial Services Commission plans to announce related measures in the first half of next year and submit an amendment to the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information to the National Assembly. To ensure early establishment of the system, it will also strengthen the FIU's organizational capabilities.