Keynote address delivered at the March 4, 2020 conference of New York University School of Law’s Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement, titled, The Advancement of Digital Assets and Addressing Financial Crime Risk
Many thanks for inviting me to speak to you about “digital assets” and preventing financial crime risks in this emergent market. In the UK, we have made the decision to refer to these as “cryptoassets”, which includes “cryptocurrencies” such as Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum and I will refer to them as such for the rest of this speech which focusses on cryptoassets only in the context of the UK’s Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs).
I will cover:
- the origins of cryptoassets, how this influences the unique financial crime risks arising from this technology in the market today.
- moving from the technology itself to the regulation in the UK, and how we look to maximise the benefits of innovation while tackling these financial crime risks.
- how our approach differs from the regulatory landscape in the United States; I will touch on similarities and areas where there is scope for us to work together.