Day: September 18, 2018

A question was posed to Lord Bates in parliament Monday regarding the UK’s ability to support the domestic blockchain industry in the current bear market that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are facing.

Lord Taylor of Warwick asked his colleague: “Her Majesty’s Government, what assessment have they made of reports that the value of crypto-currencies in the United States is falling, and of the potential effects that such a decline might have on the UK blockchain industry?”

Lord Bates, Minister of State at the Department for International Development responded, saying that as of yet the government has not made a formal assessment of the implication that the current market performance might bring. He added, ”However, the Government continues to monitor developments in the cryptocurrency market.”

The Cryptoassets Taskforce was pointed to by Lord Bates as evidence that the government is taking the potential risks of cryptocurrencies seriously. The taskforce comprises of members from HM Treasury, the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and members of parliament, and maintains responsibility for determining any issues that the blockchain industry might face.

A report from the Cryptoassests Taskforce is due this Autumn, and Lord Bates’s pressing question will hopefully be answered within the publishment.

A ‘balanced approach’

Last week, Bitcoin News reported that the UK’s FCA chief Andrew Bailey wants the nation to take a ”balanced approach” to the cryptocurrency industry. In a speech in London, Bailey said that the FCA is keen to explore the potentials of the underlying technology of cryptocurrency, blockchain. He told the crowd, “The FCA is firmly a supporter of innovation.”

With the UK’s largest financial regulator onside, this is promising that the UK’s growing blockchain industry will get official support, despite the poor performance of the market this year.

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Blockchain can help refugees get more transparent and generous financial aid, preserve their documents and streamline application processes — with no human mistakes involved

The German Finance Minister doubts that crypto can currently replace traditional currencies and that they are not presently “economically significant”

Listen to the 18 September 2018 Bitcoin News Daily Podcast below.

On this edition of the Bitcoin News Daily Podcast, we discuss how to protect your Bitcoins and keep using Bitcoin, during and after a hurricane. We speculate on how Bitcoin would be the #1 currency in space once people start inhabiting other planets.

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Denmark’s largest bank, Danske Bank, reportedly knew that some of its Estonian branch’s clients were on the Russian government’s blacklist but did not close their accounts for two years. The bank is currently being probed by three countries over $150 billion money laundering allegations.

Also read: 160 Crypto Exchanges Seek to Enter Japanese Market, Regulator Reveals

Danske ‘Ok’ With Blacklisted Clients

Danske Bank is currently under investigation by authorities in three countries: the US, Denmark, and Estonia. Its officials reportedly “knew earlier than previously indicated about problems at its tiny Estonia branch, including that it held accounts for blacklisted Russian clients,” The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing correspondence it has seen. The publication elaborated:

Officials at Danske Bank were aware almost two years before it started shutting questionable accounts that the small but highly profitable branch was involved in potentially illicit money flows.

The Estonian branch was one of the bank’s profit drivers, generating a net profit of €63 million (~US$73.5 million) in 2012, the most lucrative year. The whole bank reported €636.6 million (~$742.6 million) in net profit that year, the publication noted.

The largest bank in Denmark has been at the center of one of Europe’s largest money laundering cases. Between 2007 and 2015, an estimated $150 billion was suspected to have flowed through the branch to accounts belonging to non-Estonian customers including Russian clients. However, the bank has not confirmed how much of that figure comes from suspicious transactions. It has launched an internal investigation and is expected to announce the results on Wednesday, Sept. 19.

Discriminating Email

According to the Wall Street Journal, an April 2013 email reveals that the bank’s anti-money laundering (AML) chief based in Denmark had asked colleagues in the Estonian branch “about client accounts whose owners appeared on a blacklist generated by Russia’s central bank.” The Bank of Russia keeps a database of individuals and companies suspected of financial wrongdoing which it shares across borders. The list currently has about 500,000 names.

The Estonian Financial Supervision Authority (FSA) said on Tuesday that “it repeatedly complained to Danish counterparts about the branch’s blacklisted customers,” the news outlet conveyed, adding that in a 2013 email, Niels Thos Mikkelsen, the bank’s then-compliance executive, wrote:

They have the impression that we do not take the issue seriously.

Furthermore, the news outlet added that a spokesman for the Danish FSA pointed out that a reprimand ruling against Danske Bank in May states that the authority received “misleading” information from the bank between 2012 and 2014. Danske claims the information came from the branch.

While the Financial Times recently reported that Thomas Borgen, the bank’s CEO, was notified in October 2013 about suspicious transactions at the Estonian branch, Borgen insists that “he was not informed in detail at the time about the problems,” Reuters described on Tuesday, elaborating:

The Danske Bank case has led to speculation in Denmark that its chief executive Thomas Borgen, who was in charge of its international operations, including Estonia, between 2009 and 2012, will step down.

Why do you think the regulators are after crypto when they let Danske Bank service blacklisted clients for two years? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Danske Bank.

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Brazil’s antitrust regulator has reportedly launched a probe into six major banks on allegations of monopolistic behavior in an attempt to corner the crypto market

In order to protect investors, the U.K. Treasury Committee has called for the development of more defined cryptocurrency regulations

A former LinkedIn data expert has joined Coinbase as its VP of data, claiming that data organization is “still a new concept for many companies”

A recent report claims that a majority of circulating bitcoins are kept in investment wallets

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.