The Bank of Italy, in a new review of the state of the country’s cryptocurrency industry, reported that p2p platforms that operate without the Know Your Customer (KYC) procedure are in high demand among criminal elements intending to hide the origin of illegally obtained funds.
The regulator assured that the country’s authorities are concerned that the “apparent transparency of blockchain technology” does not exclude the provision of “criminal services.” Since cryptocurrency transactions rely on anonymity, the address of cryptocurrency wallets cannot be directly associated with a person’s identity without additional personal identification procedures, officials lamented.
According to representatives of the Bank of Italy, the best method of combating financial crime would be to document every movement of assets and link transactions with an identified sender and recipient of funds.
Otherwise, p2p platforms that operate without the KYC procedure are no different from cryptocurrency mixers and other services for anonymizing financial transactions. The regulator added that in the future the country’s authorities intend to introduce restrictions on the use of such services.
Previously, the European Banking Authority (EBA) obliged payment service providers (PSPs) and crypto asset service providers (CASPs) to provide personalized verification of counterparties and payment information for violations of measures to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial crimes.
Source: Bits
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