Estonia’s finance minister Keit Pentus-Rosimannus has revealed that the country is willing to collaborate with the U.S. to set up new regulations focused on monitoring cryptocurrency transactions, according to a recent news report.
Per the report, the finance minister made the statement during a video call with the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on a topic that centered around implementing new rules on digital assets.
“The U.S. is one of Estonia’s most important partners in the field of security, and also in financial matters. We highly value cooperation with the U.S. in the prevention of money laundering, including their advice on risk analysis systems,” she said.
The conversation also involved a discussion of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) led global tax reform plan, which Estonia joined back in October.
So far, 130 countries and jurisdictions have joined the OECD tax reform plan, which aims at eliminating tax evasion by banks, digital asset firms, and multinational corporations.
According to Minister Pentus-Rosimannus, the tax agreement bill will soon be submitted before the country’s parliamentary body, ‘Riigikogu,’ and if passed will help identify and eliminate the “anonymity” of cryptocurrency transactions including Bitcoin and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The minister noted that she was calling on the US to join hands with Estonia in seeking ways to set up regulations that will accommodate the rapidly growing crypto industry.
“In the area of virtual currencies, most countries are currently looking for solutions that can allow the fast-growing sector to develop in a transparent and investor-friendly manner… I suggested to the U.S. Treasury Secretary that Estonia can share its experience to identify best practices. We also discussed opportunities for cooperation in implementing FATF standards and regulating cryptographic assets,” she added.
Estonia Withdraws License From 500 Crypto Firms
Estonia was one of the first sets of countries to regulate the cryptocurrency industry, the North-Eastern nation started issuing licenses to crypto exchanges dating back to 2017.
To prevent future financial fraud, the country’s financial regulators announced it had withdrawn licenses from over 500 of the exchanges.
The regulators noted that the move was prompted due to a $230 billion laundering act connected with the Estonian arm of Denmark’s largest lender Danske Bank A/S.
Though the bank denied being involved in the act, reports show that the bank permitted the transaction for its own gains.
