The Financial action groupS (FATF) Travel rule for digital currency has entered into force in South AfricaInitial in a new era of openness in the country’s digital assets.
The Financial Intelligence Center (FIC) published Directive 9 in November 2024 and announced all VASPs that the travel rule would come into force on April 30. Under the rule, VASPs must collect the author and recipient information, including their full name, ID or passport number (if they are South African and foreigners), the date of birth and residential addresses. Transaction details such as amounts, dates and the unique transaction -ID must also be included.
The Travel rule applies to all transaction sizes. However, some of the requirements are simplified for transactions below R5,000 ($ 270).
The rule also requires VASPs to monitor and report all suspected transactions. All information collected must be stored for at least five years and made available to the authorities on request.
South African VASPs have taken measures to comply with the new regulations, with violations that can be punished with fines and license assignments. Binance announced Two weeks ago as it would require transaction Information from its users, with offenders who risk unprocessed transactions.
Others, like homegrown exchange Luno and Valr have made similar announcements. Luno told its users that the travel rule will enable VASPs to follow the same standards as their inheritance comrades.
“If this sounds a bit familiar, the travel rule has been applied to financial institutions such as banks for over twenty years. Banks use the SWIFT system to interact with each other for this purpose,” Luno stated.
Valr also has reminded users to provide counterparty details since mid -April in preparation for the new standard. Exchange has collaborated with London-based identity service provider Sumsub to follow the rule.
As hundreds of VASPs creep to follow the new standard, Bitcoin wallet Centbee has been ready for several years. Founder Angus Brown Told the coingeek Three years ago, this had been the norm for the past 12 months.
“We have dealt with it as if it is applicable in our business in the past year. So we do all things we should do and already conform to,” he said.
However, others have expressed concern, especially over the low reporting threshold at $ 270. Sean Sanders, whose company, Altify, offers simple “crypto” investment products, says it is one of the lowest thresholds globally.
“This will place extra compliance costs on investment platforms such as ours, which can lead to slower transaction treatment times and an overall worse user experience for our users in relation to platforms working outside South Africa,” he told A local outlet.
Look at | Alpha app: Revolutionizing Blockchain Adoption in Africa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnrszi_i-Pe Title = “Youtube video player” Ramblegder = “0” Allow = “Accelerometer; Autoplay; Clipboard Writing; Encrypted Media; Gyroscopes; Image-in-Bild; Web Dividend” Reference Policy = “Strict-Origin-When-Cross-Origin” Allowing Lorscreen = “>
