On February 7, an anti-money laundering regulation provision was released by (FINMA) the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority.

In order for additional risks to be reduced, the margin of crypto exchange's remaining anonymous transactions, are now to be reduced from 5,000 CHF to 1,000 CHF, which is about $1,020. The new changes are the result of the passing of recent executions from the Financial Institution Act and Financial Services Act on January 1.

FINMA came out with the revised ordinance in order to respond to these new acts. Consultations on what’s should be done next will be held until the date of April 9.

One of the most important changes in this Swiss provision is normalizing the national regulations in the country with the directives released in June 2019 by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). FATF is the international regulator that has imposed the $1,000 maximum limit for anonymous crypto exchange transactions.

All this means that from now on, financial providers offering crypto services will have to gather information on any person or entity that initiates operations of over $1,000. The authorities need to regularly receive information reports with this type of activities.

The FINMA initiative is only a small part of what happens in the anti-money laundering regulation sector at a global level. By implementing this new rule, the Swiss regulator is acknowledging that anti-money laundering (AML) risks have increased in the crypto space, a FINMA press release says.

Let’s not forget that the EU has implemented this year the 5th Anti Money Laundering Directive, also known as AMLD5. AMLD5 addresses certain types of crypto transactions and mentions clearly that information on crypto exchange customers needs to be reported to authorities.

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