Ripple Labs Fined $700,000 by FinCEN, Will Institute Transaction Monitoring Across Ripple Protocol

Ripple Labs' official response to the FinCEN settlement has been added below. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has fined Ripple Labs and its subsidiary XRP II a combined $700,000 for "willful violations" of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). According to a 5th May press release by the US regulator, Ripple Labs failed to register as a money services business (MSB) with FinCEN prior to selling XRP, a digital token used to settle payments on the Ripple network. Additionally, the company is said to have failed to implement appropriate anti-money laundering (AML) procedures concurrent....

Ripple Labs, the company that was expected to offer a stiff competition to Bitcoin with its Ripple (XRP) digital currency and Ripple Protocol seems to have fallen behind. Thanks to the recent crackdown by US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) where Ripple was slapped with a $700,000 fine for non-compliance of regulations while operating as a money services business and selling its virtual currency. FinCEN had found that the parent company of Ripple Labs - XRP II, LLC had willfully violated the Banking Secrecy Act by not implementing effective Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program.....

FinCEN announced on Monday that it is fining Ripple Labs, Inc., the creator of XRP, for selling XRP without first registering as a money services business and failing to implement and maintain adequate anti-money laundering provisions. These violations fall under the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970. In a press release from FinCEN, this move was called "the first civil enforcement action against a virtual currency exchanger." Ripple Labs willfully violated several requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) by acting as a money services business (MSB) and selling its virtual currency, known as XRP,....

This is a guest post by Joe Ciccolo, DCC Member and CEO of BitAML. Background. The Ripple Labs settlement agreement, the first civil enforcement action brought against a digital currency exchange, demonstrates the perils of piecemeal AML compliance and delayed implementation. Last week, Ripple Labs, the popular payment system, currency exchange and remittance network, reached a settlement with FinCEN and the US DOJ in which it acknowledged AML compliance violations and agreed to fines in excess of $1.1 million. And that's just the beginning. (More on the true financial and operational cost....

Ripple Labs made huge waves today, signing the first two U. S. banks to an agreement to use their open-source payment protocol. Two U. S. banks, Cross River Bank in New Jersey and Kansas-based CBW Bank, proclaim their utilization of the Ripple currency protocol. This makes way for an instant transfer system with international transfers at no charge on Ripple's network. "It's a big milestone," said Ripple Labs Chief, Chris Larsen. "We've been working on our enterprise banking strategy for well over a year. It takes quite a while for banks to get going." Ripple's Transaction Protocol (RTXP)....