Uruguay’s BCU instructed the cessation of activity to a company that offers transfer of funds with cryptocurrencies

The Superintendency of Financial Services of the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU) resolved this Monday, July 25 “to instruct Send Money and Edward Palencia to cease providing the operations they perform (…) through the use of cryptocurrencies for the transfer of funds” for not having the “required authorization” to carry out that activity. The communication from the regulator is signed by the Superintendent of Financial Services, Juan Pedro Cantera.

The BCU has on its agenda to send to the Executive Branch a draft law, in order to generate greater certainty and security in the operations that are generated with these virtual assets in the local market. These proposals will then be sent to Parliament for debate.

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The regulatory proposal prepared by the BCU “will be complementary” with initiatives by legislators in this field and “contemplates aspects” proposed by FATF (International Financial Action Task Force), which aim at “the prevention of money laundering.” One of the objectives is to introduce certain definitions and aspects related to digital assets into the regulations to shed light on a complex issue that worries the world.

In this line, it is necessary to differentiate the terms crypto assets (or digital assets) from cryptocurrencies, according to a study prepared by the institution itself in December 2021. While crypto assets are all those electronic representations used as a means of payment, cryptocurrencies are a type of digital assets, whose main function is to fulfill the functions of money. In this case, Bitcoin is the best known.

On the other hand, the Colorado senator Carmen Sanguinetti and the nationalist Juan Sartori are also promoting a bill that aims to regulate cryptocurrencies in Uruguay. El Salvador, Spain, Switzerland, Australia, the United Kingdom, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United States are some of the countries that have already regulated this issue.