European Union Adopts Tighter Bitcoin Controls Amid Terrorism Crackdown

The executive branch of the European Union today adopted a proposal meant to make it more difficult for terrorists and money-launderers to operate by revising existing anti-money laundering (AML) protections.
Tucked away in the list of changes proposed by the European Commission is a measure specifically designed to prevent terrorists from using virtual currencies and other financial tools deemed as risk for abuse, such as prepaid cards.
Under the terms of the proposal, virtual currency exchanges and custodian wallet providers will be brought under the purvey of the EU’s Anti-Money Laundering Directive. As such, they will be required to apply due-diligence controls “ending the anonymity associated with such exchanges”.
In statements, first vice president of the commission Frans Timmermans, sought to connect the actions to international security.

This post was published at Coin Desk on July 5, 2016.