Turkey to strengthen its legislation regarding crypto assets
Turkey is in the process of drafting new legislation concerning crypto-assets in an effort to persuade an international crime watchdog to remove it from the "grey list" of countries that have not taken sufficient measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
In 2021, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) downgraded Turkey to the grey list. During a parliamentary commission meeting on Tuesday, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek stated that a FATF report had found Turkey to be fully compliant with all but one of the watchdog's 40 standards, according to a report from Reuters.
Simsek explained the only remaining issue within the scope of technical compliance is the work related to crypto assets.
"We will submit a law proposal on crypto-assets to the parliament as soon as possible. After that, there will be no reason for Turkey to stay on that grey list, if there are no other political considerations."
Simsek did not provide further details about the proposed legal changes.
The FATF, established by the G7 group of advanced economies to safeguard the global financial system, had previously cautioned Turkey about "serious shortcomings," including the need to enhance measures for freezing assets associated with terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in 2019.
