FinCEN Rules Proposed Virtual Currency Exchange, Bitcoin Payment System Subject to BSA

Anti-Money Laundering FinCEN Bank Secrecy Act Virtual Currency

On October 27, FinCEN issued two administrative rulings to companies seeking guidance on whether they must register as MSBs and be subject to the required reporting, recordkeeping, and monitoring obligations. In its first letter, a company queried whether its plans to set up a virtual currency trading and booking platform, similar to a traditional securities or commodities exchange, would make it subject to FinCEN regulations. FinCEN responded that the proposed virtual trading platform would be classified as an MSB. As a result, the company would have to register as an MSB as defined under the BSA. In its second ruling, a company asked whether a bitcoin payment system would be subject to the agency’s regulations. The payment system would accept customers’ credit card payments and transfer the payments to merchants in the form of bitcoin. FinCEN ruled that if the company sets up the payment system, the company would be classified as a money transmitter, and subject to BSA regulations, because “it engages as a business in accepting and converting the customers’ real currency into virtual currency for transmission to the merchant.”