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Turkey Becomes Latest Country to Join Global Bank Account Crackdown 

The Turkish authorities is drafting laws to increase the powers of its monetary crime watchdog, Masak, permitting it to freeze and prohibit entry to financial institution and cryptocurrency accounts.

The invoice is designed to curb cash laundering, fraud, and “rented” accounts used for unlawful betting, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing nameless sources.

Intergovernmental watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has issued anti-money laundering requirements, which noticed Turkey faraway from its “gray record” in June 2024.

Crypto Accounts Targeted

If handed, the laws would allow Masak to shut financial institution accounts, impose transaction limits, droop cell banking, and blacklist crypto addresses that it deems linked to crime.

The new regulation can be targeted on “rented accounts” or “mule accounts,” that are accounts that criminals pay people to use for actions akin to unlawful playing, monetary fraud, or scams.

Crypto buying and selling stays authorized in Turkey, however the authorities is tightening laws and management. In July, Turkish monetary regulators blocked entry to a number of crypto platforms providing “unauthorized” digital asset providers, together with the PancakeSwap decentralized alternate.

Turkey isn’t the one nation tightening up its management over financial institution accounts.

In November, Indian authorities froze 450,000 mule accounts that they suspected had been linked to cash laundering and cyber fraud.

In April, Nigeria froze tons of of financial institution accounts that it suspected had been concerned in “suspicious foreign exchange flows.” Ethiopian authorities have additionally been lately focusing on financial institution accounts linked to alleged unlawful international alternate actions.

Asia’s Big Banking Crackdown

Banks in Thailand and Vietnam have been freezing harmless individuals’s accounts lately as they turn out to be victims of a large mule account dragnet.

Thailand has frozen as many as 3 million financial institution accounts this yr, lots of which had been harmless residents or companies, because the nation grapples with a rip-off name middle endemic. The nation has additionally imposed stringent switch limits, in-person KYC for all cell banking apps, and has been debanking foreigners.

Thailand additionally blamed crypto for its abnormally sturdy forex, however this couldn’t be farther from the reality, as commerce volumes within the Kingdom are tiny and crypto has been outlawed for funds.

Earlier this yr, Singapore empowered police to freeze financial institution accounts in a rip-off crackdown. In early September, Vietnam froze 86 million financial institution accounts for noncompliance with new biometric necessities.

The put up Turkey Becomes Latest Country to Join Global Bank Account Crackdown  appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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