KoFIU to double sanctions review staff… speeding up regulation of virtual assets and more?

The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU), an affiliate of the Financial Services Commission, will double the number of members on its Sanctions Review Committee.

According to relevant ministries on the 1st, KoFIU late last month issued a legislative notice for a partial revision to the "Regulations on Inspections and Sanctions Concerning the Reporting of Specified Financial Transaction Information." The core of the revision is to increase the number of members who can be appointed as sanctions review committee members for anti-money laundering (AML) from 10 to 20.

KoFIU explained the rationale for the expansion, saying that "with the regularization of Sanctions Review Committee meetings, the number of meetings and the number of agenda items handled have increased markedly in recent times."

Attention is turning to whether authorities will accelerate sanctions against virtual asset service providers. Under the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, KoFIU manages and supervises whether exchanges and other virtual asset service providers are fulfilling their anti-money laundering obligations.