The international peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto-exchange LocalBitcoins will soon be subject to financial supervision by Finland, as the firm reported in its blog on March 25.
Helsinki company LocalBitcoins wrote that on March 13, 2019 the Finnish parliament approved a new law that would give legal status to cryptocurrency assets.
The authorities adopted a proposal for a new law on virtual currency service providers, which is expected to come into force in November 2019.
Parliament also voted in favor of an amendment to the Law on the Detection and Prevention of Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism , which provides for the provision of all services related to cryptographic protection, such as purse providers and exchanges, in accordance with anti-money laundering laws (AML).
According to LocalBitcoins, the adoption of laws will promote the general acceptance of cryptocurrency, presenting the basic cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) as a viable and legitimate financial network.
Along with the regulatory announcement, LocalBitcoins also stated that it is developing tools to increase compliance with regulators.
On March 18, LocalBitcoins launched a new account registration process and is now working on a more efficient and secure identity verification process. The company noted that corporate accounts will undergo a separate verification process.
Earlier it was reported that the service of the crypto exchange and the wallet in Finland is experiencing problems with local banks that have refused to work with the crypto-business. In particular, the Prasos platform became a matter of concern among banks, at least four banks refused to deal with a legal entity.
Earlier this year, there was also a message about a hacker attack, which resulted in a phishing link to the LocalBitcoins clone site on the official LocalBitcoins forum. As a result, allegedly malefactors managed to steal bitcoins worth about $ 28,000 at the time of publication of the report.
