Banks and the Crypto Industry: Asia

The two biggest crypto concerns of global banks are debt liability from customers who have no protection from market volatility; and security risks associated with unregulated exchanges, such as terrorism funding, scam operations, money laundering and other financial crimes.

Contrary to restricting crypto exchanges, financial institutions have embraced the revolutionary potential of Blockchain.

Tax authorities, securities and exchange agencies, creditors, and national governments all have a stake in the unregulated crypto market, whether voluntarily or not.

China The Chinese government has cracked down on crypto activity and suggested banks suspend services to clients using the currency.

The governor of the People's Bank of China voiced criticism of virtual currency in a recent press conference where he announced regulators would apply more scrutiny to crypto exchanges out of concern that market speculation will threaten the stability of domestic markets.

The crypto community is more cooperative with the government after one of the worlds largest crypto hacks was orchestrated in January on Japanese-based exchange platform, Coincheck.

The proposal recognizes ICOs as securities, similar to the SEC's approach in the U.S. Other developments in the crypto market of Japan include the bank Consortium's recent release of a domestic payments mobile app powered by Ripple technology.

South Korea Financial regulators in South Korea share concerns similar to China and Japan, and opened an investigation into local banks compliance with AML and KYC guidelines in March after the country has seen a rapid growth of crypto markets in the last six months.

Since the government has applied more scrutiny to exchanges, two senior executives from an unnamed crypto exchange were charged with embezzlement and fraud.

India is one of the top global tech leaders, but there is a little understanding of the crypto market in the country - although people have taken an interest in the underlying Blockchain technology.