Once a bogeyman for anti-money laundering compliance departments, the technology underlying virtual currency platforms may one day be among the most important tools to identifying financial crime, industry experts say.
U.S. state regulators should require virtual currency firms currently subject to federal anti-money laundering rules to verify the identities of users of their services who do not hold accounts, a regulatory organization said Tuesday.
If you ask British banks how they view Bitcoin start-ups, you might conclude that digital currency firms in the U.K. have it no different than elsewhere. That is to say: bad.
Love or hate New Yorks plans to shield Bitcoin and its competitors from financial crooks, one thing is certain: the proposal is only the first of dozens that will shape the industry.
British officials will soon review the promises and risks of alternative payment systems, including virtual currencies, as part of a broad initiative to promote advances in financial technology.
Virtual currency businesses operating in New York may soon have to obtain special licenses and establish anti-money laundering, cyber security and consumer protection programs, the state's banking regulator announced Thursday.
Governments will need to bolster their countermeasures to battle fast-growing threats of fraud in the electronic money market, experts warned Friday.
For all of the legitimate concerns and overheated rhetoric about the rise of crypto-currencies, the biggest problem for Bitcoin may be one seldom discussed by critics: its abuse by tax dodgers.
A well-known advocate of digital currencies and the head of a Bitcoin exchange house facilitated over $1 million in transactions tied to an online black market, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Turned away by American banks, some U.S.-based digital currency companies are using foreign bank accounts to send their proceeds back into the United States to pay employees and clients.
U.S. officials have sent formal warning letters to a number of virtual currency firms it suspects have failed to register as money services businesses, the head of the nation's financial intelligence unit said Tuesday.
Lawmakers are asking the IRS to quickly finalize guidance on potential tax liabilities of digital money, including the crypto-currency platform Bitcoin.
Nearly all digital coins studied by researchers at the University of California in San Diego were used to purchase goods from a black market Web site selling illicit goods, a recent study found.
While the popularity of virtual worlds has grown in recent years, lawmakers and regulators have been slow to address related vulnerabilities to financial crime, according to Dr. Clare Chambers-Jones, an associate professor in banking and finance law at the University of West England Bristol.