The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has criticized the Central Bank of Qatar for its scant efforts to enforce its own regulations, which prohibit virtual asset service providers.
In a report published on May 31, the world watchdog for money laundering and terrorist financing stands out that Qatar should enhance its capabilities to effectively combat changing forms of criminal activity, including sanctioning virtual asset service providers.
“You must improve your understanding of the more complex forms of money laundering and terrorist financing,” he declared..
In case you missed, find out more about the effectiveness of Qatar’s measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing in the FATF-MENAFATF mutual evaluation report ➡️https://t.co/CwEJTZnb0M#moneylaundering #terroristfinancing #aml #cft #FollowTheMoney pic.twitter.com/IFiaCRxWju
—FATF (@FATFNews) June 1, 2023
In case you missed it, find out more about the effectiveness of Qatar’s measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing in the FATF-MENAFATF mutual evaluation report ➡️ #terroristfinancing #aml #cft #FollowTheMoney pic.twitter.com /IFiaCRxWju
In December 2019, the Qatar Financial Center Regulatory Authority (QFCRA) announced that virtual asset services will not be able to be performed in or from the Qatar Financial Center.
The regulatory authority warned at the time that sanctions would be imposed in accordance with the rights and obligations of the QFCRA on any company that provides or facilitates the provision or exchange of crypto assets..
According to the recent FATF report, Although Qatar has made “positive and sustained progress” in collecting beneficial ownership information for its near-complete unified registry – a consolidation of data on its citizens – there is still work to be done.:
“There are not yet sufficient controls to ensure that all information collected remains accurate and up to date.”
Qatari authorities urged to enhance their money laundering investigative effortsand it was alleged that its “sophisticated analytical capabilities” are not being fully used to identify cases of money laundering.
While Qatar has banned virtual asset service providers, it has revealed that it is actively exploring potential use cases to implement a central bank digital currency (CBDC)..
Previously, in June 2022, the QCB was reported to be in the “foundation phase” of issuing a CBDC.
Qatar’s central bank governor, Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al Thani, then revealed that the QCB was “assessing the pros and cons” of CBDCs, and crafting the right technology and platform..
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