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Another win has been chalked up on the side of the crypto industry as Finland is now allowing crypto service providers to operate within its borders. That is, of course, if the said operators meet the requirements by the Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA).
Today, five crypto service providers have been approved by the regulatory body. They are Localbitcoins, Northcrypto, Prasos, Prasos Cash Management, and Tesseract Group, news.Bitcoin reported.
Among the requirements needed for registrants to acquire the greenlight from the Finland government is ensuring compliance with anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism laws. The businesses are also required to provide extensive protection to its clients from illicit actors that are present in the crypto space.
Regulatory body to oversee registrants’ practices
“Going forward, only virtual currency providers meeting statutory requirements are able to carry on their activities in Finland. Virtual currency providers which do not comply with statutory requirements will be prohibited from continuing their business activities, enforced by a conditional fine,” a Finnish financial watchdog stated a few months ago.
This regulation has been in effect since May 01 but the FIN-FSA only issued the greenlight to registrants just recently as it tried to comb through applicants that diligently followed the requirements. But this doesn’t mean that the aforementioned crypto services will be given free rein moving forward. The FIN-FSA will still conduct inspections and monitor these operators to ensure that they’re following the law to the letter.
Registrants forbidden to operate on other shores
The operators are also prohibited to practice their services on other European territories as each member of the union has differing laws concerning crypto services. With this regulation in place, Finland has positioned itself among the countries that are fostering the growth of the crypto market, which has been seeing waves of positive sentiments in recent weeks.
For instance, China is now accelerating its effort to mass adopt blockchain technology into its system as it recognizes the innovation’s importance for numerous sectors moving forward. The country is currently preparing to launch its own digital currency in an attempt to gain the upper hand against Facebook’s Libra initiative, the social media giant’s own native currency that it’s developing along with other corporate juggernauts.
