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| The office of the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit, located in central Seoul / Yonhap |
By Anna J. Park
After the government announced measures last week to strengthen the supervision and monitoring of the cryptocurrency sector, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) summoned the country's 20 digital coin exchange operators to a meeting Thursday, raising interest in its plans regarding them.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) called the meeting to provide information and consulting on business reporting requirement procedures.
This is the first official move by the FSC on regulating local cryptocurrency operators, and the meeting only involved the 20 exchanges that had already obtained Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification from the government.
The Financial Security Institute and the Korea Internet & Security Agency provide ISMS certification to companies that have met over a hundred rigorous requirements for safely running their business operations.
"The KoFIU called the meeting of the 20 ISMS certified cryptocurrency exchanges to provide information concerning the procedures for their prompt business reporting to the government by September," an official from the intelligence unit said.
The official said that while this meeting only concerned the 20 exchanges, further ones will be prepared for exchanges that haven't yet earned certification. While the specifics of the meeting agenda weren't officially available, participants were staff below the CEO level, according to industry sources.
The meeting was organized as exchanges have begun to ask questions concerning the government's guidelines about business declarations and taxation, following last week's announcement.
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The revision of the "Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information" states that cryptocurrency exchanges must officially register their businesses in order to get a government license. The three requirements for registering their business are obtaining ISMS certification; verifying real-name bank accounts of investors; and the CEO and board members having not committed any crimes. Coin exchanges that meet the three requirements need to register with the KoFIU by September 24 to continue operations.
Out of about 60 exchanges headquartered here, only the 20, including Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit and Coinone, having obtained ISMS certification. These four major cryptocurrency exchanges have also met the legal requirement of their investors using real-name bank accounts for verifiable trading.
The KoFIU hope to receive registration applications before the Sept. 24 deadline to prevent any consumer confusion, and damage happening thereafter. Thursday's meeting was seen as the government officially beginning to supervise the virtual asset market in order to minimize any instability.
More of these meetings are expected, not only among coin exchanges, but also among various other business participants in the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector, including coin issuers and decentralized finance (DeFi) product operators.
