At the end of last year, China’s financial regulatory authorities gave clear “red lines” for the supervision of future financial technology.
Firstly, resolutely breaking monopoly, correcting and investigating unfair ant-competition behavior, and maintaining fair competition market order;
Secondly, it insisted that all financial activities must be supervised in accordance with laws and regulations, such that related financial services must be operated with a license, and “zero tolerance” for various violations of laws and regulations;
Thirdly, the regulators shall adhere to “two unshakable”, that are protecting property rights in accordance with the law, promoting entrepreneurship, and stimulate market players as dominant force with creativity to enhance the competitiveness of Chinese financial technology companies.
Recently, the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau of the Hong Kong Government also issued a consultation document to solicit opinions on legislative proposals to strengthen Hong Kong’s anti-money laundering and terrorist financing system. In its consultation, the government proposed to expand the scope of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regulations, including cryptocurrency exchanges, as to in line with the initiatves set forth by the Paris ‘s Financial Action Task Force (FATF) .
But the proposal about restricting cryptocurrency trading to professional investors only appeared stricter than in other jurisdictions, arousing industry responses from such as Mr. Malcolm Wright, the chair of Global Digital Finance’s Advisory Council, “Restricting cryptocurrency trading to professional investors only is different to what we have seen in other jurisdictions such as Singapore, the UK, and the US, where retail investors can buy and sell virtual assets,”
Hong Kong’s authority defines individual professional investors as having an investment portfolio of at least HK$8 million. A survey released by Citibank in last September found that there are about 504,000 millionaires in Hong Kong with net assets of no less than HK$10 million (US$1.3 million), or approximately 7% of the population, which means cryptocurrency trading may be limited to about 93% of Hong Kong’s population.
#Cryptocurrency #anti-money laundering