CCN.com reported that a court ruled that the South Korean commercial bank Nonghyup could not terminate a contract even though Nonghyup was trying to comply with "...the anti-money laundering guidelines issued by the regulator Financial Services Commission (FSC)." The November 3, 2018 article entitled "South Korean Court Rules Bank's Action to End Banking Services to Crypto Exchange Illegal" included these comments:
A court in South Korea has ruled that the decision by a commercial bank to stop offering banking services to a cryptocurrency exchange was unlawful and must therefore be rescinded.
At the beginning of the year, commercial banks providing banking services to cryptocurrency exchanges in the Asian country came under increased scrutiny from regulators intent on cracking down on speculative trading and money laundering and Nonghyup featured prominently among the six banks that were set to be investigated.
Three months later Nonghyup was also among three banks that the Financial Services Commission and the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit indicated would undergo on-site inspections with regards to the services they offered cryptocurrency exchanges.
Just like in the earlier investigation, this one was being conducted to ensure that the financial institutions were adhering to the Know-Your-Client and Anti-Money Laundering rules.
This case will be interesting to follow.
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