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VerifyVASP hosts GBBC Compliance & Capital Markets Risk Mitigation Roundtable
April 29, 20262 min read

VerifyVASP hosts GBBC Compliance & Capital Markets Risk Mitigation Roundtable

VerifyVASP is honoured to have hosted the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) APAC Compliance & Capital Markets Risk Mitigation Roundtable at our office last week. With thanks to GBBC CEO Sandra Ro, the Roundtable brought together digital assets industry leaders, regulators and academics for an extensive discussion on GBBC’s latest Risk Management Framework and Travel Rule compliance, among other pressing issues critical to the sustainable development of the digital assets ecosystem.

We are thankful for the insights from MAS, ASIFMA, BlockchainAPAC, DTCC, Kaiko, Tether, Ripple, and other experts. These are the issues which stood out:

  • The Risk Mitigation Framework (RMF) Phase 2 begins to address non-financial risk concerns for regulated FIs use of public blockchains, covering Layer 2 risk mitigation which tackles the novel risks arising from the unique features of blockchains.
  • Travel Rule is designed to mitigate the AML/CFT risks of digital assets arising from its anonymous and 7/24 nature. But seven years after FATF made it a global standard, implementation remains patchy. Part of this - and in the wider compliance context - is attributable to the lack of compliance talents and skills in both private and public sectors. Standardisation is another area that requires more efforts.   
  • More can be done to facilitate the private sector’s understanding of the public sector to improve implementation. Essentially, the public sector is not a monolith - there are nuanced differences among the priorities and concerns of policy, oversight/surveillance and enforcement teams.

We could not agree more need for the better understanding of risks of and subsequent mitigation for digital assets, so as to advance implementation of core compliance areas like the Travel Rule. As a member of GBBC and an observer of the RMF, we remain committed to advancing the discussion on these issues, and contributing to the better understanding of public and private sectors on digital assets.