Report: Leading South African Bank Sends Account Termination Notices to Crypt...
One of South Africa’s biggest banks, Standard Bank, has reportedly sent account termination notices to clients that offer automated cryptocurrency arbitrage services. Bank’s Criteria Questioned This move, according to a Mybroadband report, has sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency industry. The sending of the notices has also raised questions about the criteria that Standard Bank is using when making a decision on which accounts must be terminated. For example, Carel de Villiers, the co-founder of an arbitrage trading firm Shiftly, is one individual quoted questioning....
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The head of the South African central bank has insisted that regulators and policymakers should be involved in directing any potential move to markets that are based on distributed ledger technology (DLT).
Pondering the Implications of Innovation
The governor of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), Lesetja Kganyago, has argued that central banks, regulators, and policymakers should and must play a role in “shaping a potential move to DLT-based markets.”
According to Kganyago, these stakeholders can achieve this objective by “pondering the....
A South African judge, Justice Alma de Wet, has ruled in favor of granting a final liquidation order against Mirror Trading International (MTI), the country’s biggest bitcoin scam in the past year. Nevertheless, the judge postponed a ruling on an application by MTI liquidators to have the company declared an unlawful business to September 8, 2021. According to a report, interested parties that are opposed to the liquidators’ intervening application now “have until July 30 to file their answering affidavits.” On the other hand, liquidators “have until August 13....
The banking authority said avoiding risk by cutting off crypto-involved clients may pose a “threat” to financial integrity. The Prudential Authority of the Reserve Bank of South Africa sent out guidelines to its subsidiaries in an effort to prevent illicit activities, encouraging banks not to cut all ties with cryptocurrency. It suggested that such an act could cause greater risk in the long run.The official notice was signed by the Prudential Authority CEO, Fundi Tshazibana. In the past certain South African banks cut ties with what is called in the document, “Crypto Asset Service....
According to the latest guidance note issued by the South African banking sector regulator, Prudential Authority, risk assessment does not mean financial institutions should avoid or eliminate risks via the wholesale termination of client relationships with entities such as crypto asset service providers. Instead, the regulator wants financial institutions to only consider “de-risking” when the “risk posed is too great to manage successfully.”
A Threat to Financial Integrity
South Africa’s main banking industry regulator, the Prudential....
South African tax consultancy firm Tax Consulting SA, has said the recent announcement by the central bank — that will start to regulate cryptocurrency in 12 to 18 months — has legal and tax implications for both crypto investors and organizations providing intermediary services. The firm, however, says the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) “will not interfere in the investment decisions made by crypto investors.”
Intermediaries Must Register as Financial Services Providers
According to a South African tax consultancy firm, Tax Consulting SA, recent....