Until the end of 2019, the concept of “virtual currency” replacing the concept of “ cryptocurrency ” may appear in Russian legislation. This was announced on Tuesday by the head of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, Anatoly Aksakov.
The deputy told :
"We have removed from the bills on digital rights and digital assets, for example, the concept of" cryptocurrency ", because we have decided not to legitimize something that can be used to launder money and finance terrorism."
Thus, the draft law “On Digital Financial Assets” (CFA), which was submitted to the State Duma in March 2018, does not regulate the circulation of cryptocurrencies, as such. According to Akasakov, Russian law cannot be used in open blockchains , so the lawmakers decided not to regulate these processes.
According to the deputy, the draft law on digital financial assets should not contain the concepts of “cryptocurrency” and “ mining ”, because in this case they do not solve the issues of attracting investment within the framework of digital platforms.
The current version of the draft law on the CFA regulates only how non-public companies and individual entrepreneurs to issue digital assets that will confirm the cash and other rights of investors in the company's capital, Aksakov said.
The parliamentarian believes that it is better to prescribe the concept of “virtual currency” as a separate draft law, especially since the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Financial Action Task Force also uses this concept.
“To develop a new draft law, a working group is created on the basis of the committee with the participation of representatives of the FSB, Rosfinmonitoring, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Central Bank. The document must be adopted before the end of this year, ” said the deputy.
In October 2018, FATF added clarifications on virtual assets to its recommendations, warning countries that they should prevent the use of such assets to finance crime.
The State Duma should consider the bill on digital financial assets in the second reading today, March 19. So far, parliament has not officially announced the results of the session.
Date of publication: 20.03.2019
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