The Colombian Financial Supervisory Agency has announced a project aimed at clarifying how the link between banks and virtual asset service providers (VASPs) will be treated in the future. The document defines certain key concepts and determines a set of prerequisites that banks will need to verify before accepting a virtual asset service provider as a client.
Virtual asset service providers regulated in Colombia
Regulation is becoming an important goal for the Latam country, where cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular. Currently, the Colombian Financial Supervisory Agency has published a document that seeks to establish norms regarding the requirements that cryptocurrency exchanges and custody providers must meet to be served as clients of banks. The project defines key concepts such as virtual asset service providers (VASPs), virtual assets within the scope of regulation, etc.
Similarly, it stipulates that virtual asset service providers must be connected to the UIAF, Colombia’s financial intelligence agency, and have an action plan to address any money laundering or terrorist financing attempts that may be made using their platforms.
The project also indirectly refers to compliance with the travel rules promoted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). It states that banks must ensure that these VASPs have.
technical and operational capacity to monitor transactions in virtual assets and to obtain, store and transmit information on the originator and beneficiary of each transaction.
Other requirements
The proposal states that VASPs must be able to present clear information to customers about the services they provide, the risks associated with these services, the costs associated with these services, and the virtual assets present on the platform
VASPs will also have plans to address operational and cybersecurity-related risks to address hacking and platform issues that could affect the provision of services to customers. In addition, banks would be obligated to separate their responsibilities from those of the VASPs and inform their customers that only the bank and these platforms are responsible for VASP-related issues.
The proposal also places restrictions on investments. It states that.
Supervised entities authorized to capture resources through deposit products or funds must ensure that the business of depositing and withdrawing resources into deposit or fund instruments in the name of the VASP is conducted only through non-face-to-face channels.
This proposal is still in the discussion stage and the Financial Supervisory Authority will accept comments on this proposal until August 12.
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