Qatar gets slammed for not taking enough action against crypto companies
The global watchdog fighting money laundering and terrorist financing has slammed Qatar Central Bank (QCB) for making little effort to enforce its own regulations prohibiting virtual asset service providers.
In a report published on May 31, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) highlighted that Qatar needs to advance its capabilities to effectively combat evolving forms of criminal activity, including sanctioning virtual asset service providers.
“It needs to improve understanding of more complex forms of money laundering and terrorist financing,” it was noted.
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It was only in December 2019 that Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA) announced that virtual asset services may not be conducted in or from the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC).
The regulatory authority warned at the time that penalties will be imposed in accordance with the QFCRA’s rights and obligations to any firm that provides or facilitates the provision or exchange of crypto assets.
According to FATF’s recent report, while Qatar has made “positive and sustained progress” in gathering beneficial ownership information for its nearly completed unified register – a consolidation of data of its citizens – there is still more work to be done:
Qatar’s authorities were urged to improve their investigative efforts towards money laundering, as it was alleged its “sophisticated analysis capabilities” to identify instances of money laundering are not being fully utilized.
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