Japan’s financial regulator imposed business improvement orders to six exchanges after it found flaws in their anti-money laundering systems and controls during on-site inspections. BitFlyer said in a statement it would voluntarily stop the creation of new customer accounts as it makes efforts to shore up its systems, according to Reuters. Others targeted by the FSA included well-known exchanges Quione and Bitbank.
The action follows the USD 530 million theft of digital money from Coincheck, one of Japan’s biggest exchange, earlier in 2018. The heist underscored worries over the security of trading cryptocurrencies. Since the daring heist, the FSA has rejected applications to run exchanges, and ordered others to cease or improve business over weaknesses in customer protection.
Due to chair the G20 in 2020, Japan intents to become leader in combating money laundering at cryptocurrency exchanges, and is pushing for adoption of new binding rules by 2019.
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