Taiwan to Allow Traditional Banks to Offer Crypto Trading Services?

Lavina Daryanani
Source: Asia Blockchain Review

Disclaimer: This article was updated at 18:31 UTC after new information valid to the narrative was identified.

A month back, the Chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission of Taiwan, Huang Tien-mu, confirmed that the island’s top financial regulator will be in charge of crypto regulation. For context, Taiwan has two financial regulators.

One is the Central Bank of the Republic of China and the other one is the FSC. Explicitly, the former takes care of aspects involving foreign exchange regulations and monetary policy. The latter, on the other hand, has a wider base and caters to securities and futures, banking, and anti-money laundering. Today, the Chairman of the commission clarified the position of the FSC.

Recently, BlockTempo reported that the “Banking Industry Trading Crypto” regulations will likely be released by the end of the next quarter. It was perceived that this will allow traditional banks in Taiwan to offer crypto trading services.

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According to the translated version of Tien-mu’s statement, he said, “Frankly speaking, I have many concerns about the internal value of virtual assets… The norms will come out in September.

A few hours later, ABMedia pointed-out that BlockTempo misreported this development. Chalking out the same, Chinese Journalist Colin Wu clarified that the guiding principles to be released in September are related to the self-discipline rules of the crypto industry and has nothing to do with the banking industry.

Also Read: Hong Kong to Release Crypto Framework in May

Community rushes to congratulate Taiwan

Here it is worth recalling that Hong Kong’s Securities Futures Commission is also looking to tighten the regulatory screws. Moreover, it will roll out crypto exchange licensing guidelines in May 2023. Drawing parallels between the two developments, a community member tweeted,

Yesterday Hong Kong, now Taiwan. East Asia wants to attract crypto entrepreneurs and have the crypto hubs of the world.

However, it should be noted that BlockTempo‘s misreporting caused social misunderstanding. In retrospect, community members got excited, as highlighted above, and began congratulating Taiwan.

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