FinCEN and Federal Reserve drop plan to expand Travel Rule

NewsBTC reported that FinCEN and the Federal Reserve have withdrawn a proposed expansion of the Travel Rule covering certain transfers of convertible virtual currency. The move pulls back a notice of proposed rulemaking, and the plan would have lowered the threshold for cross-border transfers. The proposal was a notice, not a final rule, so the withdrawal changes what was under consideration rather than any binding requirement.

FinCEN issued both announcements on November 6, and the withdrawal came alongside a FinCEN action against MEXC Global. The agency's withdrawal removes the proposal but leaves existing anti-money-laundering obligations intact, and reporting and customer-identification rules that already exist still apply. Anyone tracking the MEXC Global action will see the withdrawal arrived the same day.

The announcements leave room for future rulemaking or targeted action. Compliance teams were urged to keep their transfer-screening arrangements in place.

Because the withdrawal removes the proposal, the lower cross-border threshold it would have introduced does not move forward. Firms handling convertible virtual currency therefore continue under the requirements that are currently in force, as the withdrawal does not cancel them.