If you send your crypto through an exchange, you might be sending your personal information too.

tl;dr Sending digital assets between exchanges and other Crypto providers in Europe, Canada and Asia includes transfer of personal information. UK joins the list.

So what is it?

On September 1, the UK government became the latest of a growing list of countries to have implemented “Recommendation 16”(R16) of the global “Financial Action Task Force” (FATF).

R16 requires Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) to add the following information to any transfer of cryptocurrencies:

1. The name of the sender and the beneficiary

2. If the sender or beneficiary is a company the registered name of the originator or beneficiary.

3. The account number of the sender and the beneficiary, or if there is no account number, the unique transaction identifier.

That’s not the end of it

If the sender is an individual both sender/recipient are in the same country, they also have to provide one of these

The customer identification number.

The individual’s address.

The individual’s birth certificate number, passport number, or national identity card number.

The individual’s date and place of birth.

If the sender/recipient are in different countries. They have to provide ALL of those pieces of information

verified by the originating VASP using documents or a reliable source independent of the person whose identity is being verified.

What could go wrong

My concern is that exchanges registered in places that implement Recommendation 16 will automatically add my KYC information to every transaction regardless of the recipient.

I don’t want some backstreet exchange in some far flung corner of the world having my passport details.

Is it a problem?

I’d say “not if you are aware and definitely not if you take your funds off the exchanges as a matter of principle”.

However, I have sent Crypto from VASPs in the past for convenience and probably would have again if I hadn’t known about this.

Stay safe.

Stay private.

See you in the Bullrun

(Full list of countries applying the rules and their specifics in each country are here)

https://sumsub.com/blog/what-is-the-fatf-travel-rule/#seventh