Newly appointed governor of South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Yoon Suk-heun seem to be reasoning with thousands of the country’s crypto enthusiasts who have been calling for relaxed regulations in the digital currency industry.
In a statement to the press following his approval, Yoon noted that he will work with other financial regulators and authorities in South Korea to develop a strong regulatory framework that will benefit the digital currency industry as well as the entire financial system.
Yoon did not however divulge the specific cryptocurrency policies that FSS will put in place. He only indicated that the agency will only review the existing regulations in the industry.
The appointment of Yoon is a blessing to the crypto industry because he is known to be a reformist and an activist and he is likely to relax the aggressive and restrictive measures. He is expected to take over on May 8 and he will be taking over an agency that is currently under the FSC. The FSS is tasked with supervising financial institutions.
Late last year, the FSC announced that it would ban anonymous domestic trading. The agency went ahead and instructed cryptocurrency exchanges to fully check and verify the details and identities of their users. The directive required investors to operate real bank accounts as opposed to just having virtual ones. These strict measures led to a lot of fear in the digital currency industry, with many saying that they could lead to a total ban.
Industry wants to be regulated, not suffocated
The four major exchange operators in the country- Korbit, Coinone and Upbit fulfilled the new requirements and moved all the virtual accounts into real ones, a move that drastically reduced trading volumes. Bithumb vice president Lee Jeong-ah said that the directive reduced daily transactions to 400 billion from the initial 4 trillion. Lee that added that many local banks were very reluctant in accepting new digital currency traders.
An official at Upbit said that they support the regulations but they are too rigid and are likely to kill the industry than do good.
