Turkey is preparing new crypto-asset legislation to convince an international crime watchdog to remove the country from its “grey list” of countries that have not taken sufficient measures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, Reuters reported.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) downgraded Turkey to the so-called gray list in 2021. Speaking before a parliamentary committee late Tuesday, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said Turkey had fully complied with all but one of the regulator’s 40 standards in a FATF report.
“The only remaining issue within the scope of technical compliance is the work related to crypto assets,” Şimşek was quoted by Reuters as saying.
“We will submit a law proposal on crypto-assets to the parliament as soon as possible. After that, there will be no reason for Turkey to stay in that grey list, if there are no other political considerations.”
Şimşek did not provide further details on the planned legislative changes.
The FATF, which was established by the G7 group of advanced economies to protect the global financial system, had warned Turkey over “serious shortcomings,” including the need to improve measures to freeze assets linked to terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in 2019.