The Financial Services Commission said, “As the Special Money Act comes into effect on March 25, we will legislate amendments to the supervisory regulations in order to specifically determine the matters mandated by the law and enforcement decree as supervisory regulations.” The amendment also includes the timing of reporting suspicious transactions (STR) transactions.
Article 27 (1) of the amendment stipulated the reasons for the exception of the obligation to secure a deposit and withdrawal account for confirming the real name. Pursuant to Article 7 (3) 2 of the Act, the Financial Services Commission stipulated the exception of not having to issue a real name confirmation deposit/withdrawal account as “a virtual asset business operator who does not have any act of exchanging money with virtual assets”.
Article 26 of the amendment prescribed the method of calculating the price of virtual assets. When trading/exchanging virtual assets, the price in Korean won is calculated by applying the value indicated by the virtual asset business operator at the time the transaction is concluded.
At the time of transfer, the virtual asset price is calculated in Korean won by applying the virtual asset value indicated by the virtual asset business entity when a virtual asset is requested to be transferred or received from a customer.
Orderbook sharing between virtual asset exchanges is also allowed if certain requirements are met. The order book can be shared if another virtual asset business entity is a business that fulfills its obligations to prevent money laundering through licenses, etc. in Korea or abroad, or if information about the customer of another virtual asset business entity that has transacted with its customer can be verified.
The revised bill also stipulated that virtual asset providers cannot handle dark coins, which are difficult to determine transaction details.
The Financial Services Commission announced that it prepared other forms such as a virtual asset business operator’s report, a change report, and a renewal report. Virtual assets were also included in the suspicious transaction report form.
The notice of this rule change is scheduled to take effect on March 25, the date of enforcement of the Special Law, after regulatory review by the Regulatory Reform Committee. Virtual asset business operators are obliged to fulfill their obligations to prevent money laundering (business report, customer verification, suspicious transaction report) from March 25 after the report is accepted.
▲ Business procedure for reporting a virtual asset business operator (Photo = Financial Supervisory Service)
On this day, the FIU and the Financial Supervisory Service also released a manual for reporting virtual asset business operators. Virtual asset business operators must report to the FIU with a report and attached documents. The target of reporting is a business operator or a new business entity that was engaged in virtual asset business prior to the enforcement of the Special Act. Existing business owners must complete the report by September 24, 6 months after the enforcement of the law.
A virtual asset business operator must meet the information protection management system certification (ISMS), the establishment of a real name confirmation deposit and withdrawal account, and the qualification requirements of the representative and executives to accept the report. After receiving the report, the FIU requests the Financial Supervisory Service for review. The FSS will review the reporting documents and whether the reporting requirements are met, and notify the FIU. The FIU decides whether to accept the report and notifies and announces it to the business operator.
The FIU notifies the business operator whether the report is accepted within 3 months from the date of receipt of the report (45 days for change report). However, if a request for supplementation of the report and attached documents is requested to confirm that the reporting requirements are met during this period, the period allocated for supplementing the documents is excluded.