개정된 특정금융거래정보의 보고 및 이용 등에 관한 법률의 한계와 가상자산사업 업권법 제정에 관한 논의

Despite of various controversies about virtual assets, virtual asset-related businesses are continuously developing, and the size of transactions has reached a situation that can no longer be ignored legally. The FATF adopted Recommendation 15 related to virtual assets in October 2018, and the Interpretive note to recommendation 15 was confirmed as a follow-up measure at the general meeting in June 2019. The Recommendation 15 and the Interpretive note to recommendation 15 directly impose anti-money laundering obligations on virtual asset business operators and require countries to manage and supervise whether these virtual asset business operators fulfill their anti-money laundering obligations. In Korea, the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information was amended to reflect the FATF’s view on virtual asset business, and is currently being implemented. In this paper, the major revisions of the Act will be examined and whether Korea’s virtual asset regulations are appropriate will be discussed. In particular, discussions on the enactment of the virtual asset business act have been actively conducted recently. Some view that the regulations on virtual asset businesses are sufficient only with the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information. However, from the perspective of establishing a sound economic order and efficient allocation and flexibility of capital, it is difficult to say that sufficient regulations have been established so far. Therefore, unless the issuance and transaction of virtual assets themselves are prohibited, an institutional mechanism to protect ICO participants in the process of issuing virtual assets should be prepared. In addition, strict entry regulations on virtual asset businesses and unfair trade regulations in the distribution market should be prepared to induce the virtual asset market to function as a sound financial market.