The Law on Anti-Money Laundering was passed by the National Assembly and took effect from March 2023. Immediately afterwards, the Government issued Decree 19/2023/ND-CP detailing a number of articles of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering and the State Bank issued Circular No. 09/2023/TT-NHNN guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering.
At the workshop "Regulations on anti-money laundering and the role of anti-money laundering in cryptocurrency transactions" jointly organized by the Vietnam Banking Association (VNBA) and the Vietnam Blockchain Association last weekend, Vice President and General Secretary of the Banking Association Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung said: "In the context of increasingly deep integration along with the explosion of information technology, Vietnam has to face many forms, methods, and tricks of criminals to carry out money laundering that are increasingly sophisticated and complicated.
Especially in the field of digital currency, virtual currency (cryptocurrency) where the legal corridor is not yet fully completed. In recent years, cryptocurrencies have been used for payment but it does not exclude the possibility of money laundering through transactions of this type of currency."
Currently, credit institutions, businesses and individuals are also concerned about the issue of preventing and combating money laundering.
According to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, during the process of drafting the Law on Anti-Money Laundering, VNBA always closely coordinated with the drafting unit, especially the Anti-Money Laundering Department (State Bank) to contribute comments, organize seminars and discussions with the participation of domestic and international economic experts.
Blockchain technology has opened a new era of technology and has a profound impact on many areas of the economy thanks to important features such as security and privacy.
According to Mr. Nguyen Doan Hung, Vice President of Vietnam Blockchain Association, blockchain technology has been applied in many fields, from banking and finance, to e-commerce, healthcare, sports and entertainment, insurance, logistics and many other service industries.
The global blockchain technology market is forecast to reach a value of over $1,400 billion by 2030 with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of nearly 86%/year during 2022 - 2030.
This strong growth not only brings special economic and social benefits but also creates invisible problems and challenges in management, especially for cross-border money laundering activities.
Meanwhile, only a few countries and territories have been able to enact legal regulations to prevent financial crimes using high technology and blockchain technology, such as the European Union (EU) with the Markets in Cryptoassets Act (MiCA). However, it will not be until 2024 that MiCA will officially take effect.
In Vietnam, due to the lack of a specific legal framework and the lack of processes and high-quality personnel for cryptocurrencies and digital assets, although the Law on Anti-Money Laundering 2022 has taken effect since March 1, 2023, credit institutions and state agencies are still confused about how to handle acts related to this new type of asset.
According to data from Chainalysis recently shared by the US Department of Justice, the total value of cryptocurrencies received by Vietnam in the period from October 2021 to October 2022 is nearly 90.8 billion USD. Of which, illegal activities are 956 million USD.
In terms of network access address, the most used platform for cryptocurrency trading by users in Vietnam is Binance.com exchange with nearly 42 million visits from October 1, 2021 to October 1, 2022.
The strong growth of this virtual currency market, along with the lack of management corridors, modern technologies are also at risk of being exploited by criminals for illegal purposes for personal gain such as money laundering, terrorist financing, corruption...
With the goal of enhancing the effectiveness of anti-money laundering activities through cryptocurrencies in particular and digital assets in general, the Vietnam Blockchain Association recommends that financial institutions need to perform 3 tasks: Identify digital asset transactions, build processes and prepare good human resources.
To prevent money laundering and online fraud that have been showing signs of breaking out recently, Mr. Le Anh Dung - Deputy Director of the Credit Department (SBV) said that there will be a regulation requiring biometric authentication (by fingerprint, face) when transferring money between banks, possibly at 10 million VND. This will also neutralize the practice of buying, selling and renting bank accounts that has existed for a long time.
Tuan Nguyen
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