Japan’s FSA Expands its Cryptocurrency Reach With New Division in Sign of the Times

As the regulatory pressure continues to grow, especially in the east and in countries like Japan and Korea, the Japanese FSA has today announced a new division. The Strategy Development and Management Bureau will be tasked with tackling cryptocurrency, fintech and money laundering.

This latest expansion by the FSA, which has been hard at work policing exchanges and dishing out business improvement orders, spells bigger and more comprehensive regulation for Japan which is trying to clear its name of bad exchanges and hacks- such as Mt. Gox and Coincheck.

Getting up to date

The Strategy Development and Management Bureau (SDMB) will be responsible primarily for keeping the regulations board of Japan up to date, especially when it comes to the fast-moving world of cryptocurrencies, fintech and money laundering.

This new division is actually an update of an old division known as Inspection Bureau which was intended to deal with the Asian financial crisis. But, the new division will also have the power to design new financial policies, such as to combat money laundering.

Border reach over cryptocurrencies

It is expected that this latest move by regulators will be widely accepted and welcomed by the  Japanese financial services industry, particularly by those working in cryptocurrency.

Despite its unregulated origins, the cryptocurrency industry seems to be more in line with institutional and regulatory recognition of late.

And, because the SDMB is aiming to be progressive and looking to keep up to date with trends, there will no doubt be accepted from the cryptocurrency community who have in the past had to wait for regulators to catch up and shut things down.

Eastern regulatory bastion

Japan may be heading the way in terms of its strict, yet fair regulations of cryptocurrency because of the major hacks it has suffered, but, they are really taken a lot of their cues from Korea.

The South Korean government recently made cryptocurrency exchanges legal entities in an attempt to legitimize them, but also to make them fall under expected banking regulations.