FATF report on potential risks with virtual currencies


NOTE: this story is about an older event. It has been included in the Newsblog because it is considered a useful story for reference purposes.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body that develops and promotes policies to protect the global financial system from money laundering and terrorist financing, has issued a report on virtual currencies.

The report provides an overview of centralised virtual currencies which are controlled by a central administrator and non-centralised ones such as Bitcoin.  The report gives key definitions and also outlines the potential risks virtual currencies may present to global anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) standards.

The report finishes off by discussing the cases of Liberty Reserve, Silk Road and Western Express International, as examples of law enforcement action involving virtual currencies.

The report in pdf form is available here.