NRI Report: Japan’s New Payment Rules Hold Back Bitcoin Remittances

A forthcoming report from Nomura Research Institute (NRI) argues that despite new regulations aimed at bitcoin and digital currencies, more needs to be done to bring clarity to the innovators working with the technology in Japan.
Penned by senior consultant Yasutake Okano, the report centers on the Payment Services Act (PSA), a bill passed by Japan’s legislature in May. Debated for months, the bill brought domestic bitcoin exchanges under existing anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) rules by classifying virtual currencies as a type of prepaid payment instrument.
But Okano argues the PSA revisions don’t go far enough, and that further updates to the country’s Banking Act and Financial Instruments and Exchange Act will be needed to clarify whether other promising use cases for the technology can be explored.

This post was published at Coin Desk on July 13, 2016.