Japan’s Government to Lead the Development of SWIFT Network for Cryptocurrency

It is projected that the SWIFT network development will be supervised by the International Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action team where Japan will work in conjunction with other countries. 

The report further reveals that creating an international network is the Japanese government’s way of fighting against money laundering. The network intends to make sure that all transactions are recorded in compliance with the regulations.

There is no clarity on how the cryptocurrency network intends to work yet. However, SWIFT plans to be the international channel through which banks can use to transfer money all over the world.

When It All Started

In June, the FATF gave its approval of the plan that the Japanese Ministry of Finance and the Financial Services Agency (FSA) had proposed to establish a new network. The FSA and Ministry of finance, however, both declined to comment.

According to sources privy to Reuters (the report), the Japanese government intends to complete the project within the next few years. Also, FATF reiterated that the Japanese authorities are also planning to partner with other government and international authorities. Identification is, however, required since that information was not published.

It's Good News for Crypto

This comes as pro-adoption news for crypto from the government, which is positive publicity following the backlash that Facebook's Libra has been receiving recently.  As cryptoknomics had reported, several governments have raised serious concerns about Libra, including national security issues, stating that it would have little credibility or disrupt the traditional financial system into a great length.

This positive news from Japan is expected to steer the adoption of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the right direction. In fact, back in 2017, Japan was the first country in the world to regulate the exchange of cryptocurrencies at the national level. For a very long time, Tokyo has been focused on ensuring the security of virtual currencies to stimulate the fintech industry economic growth.

A slight limitation is that it’s not clear whether the network is going to meet the resistance of the users primarily because the attraction of cryptocurrencies partly lies in their unregulated nature. That is why governments and central bankers are constantly worried about this unregulated nature of cryptocurrencies.

Facebook’s Crypto Shenanigans

When Facebook announced its plans of launching a digital coin, several regulators, central banks and governments insisted that the technology giant has to comply with anti-money laundering as well as FATF rules ensuring security for transactions and user’s data security.

It is also likely that digital currencies will be a topic at the G7 Finance Ministers meeting in France this week.