Luno Malaysia started processing withdrawals on March 29

KUALA LUMPUR: Luno Malaysia, which has had transactions for its Malayan Banking Bhd account suspended since last year, started processing withdrawals on March 29.

Currently, pending withdrawals are being processed in batches, while Luno continues to work on a long-term solution to process both ringgit withdrawals and deposits in Malaysia. Deposits are still not possible.

“Enabling Malaysian customers to have access to their funds is our main priority,” said David Low, country manager for Luno Malaysia, said in a statement yesterday.

“We are also testing other solutions for processing both deposits and withdrawals, which will allow us to resume full services in Malaysia. Malaysia, and more broadly Southeast Asia, is critical to our mission to bring digital currencies to everyone, everywhere.”

Luno also announced that it has formally registered with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) as a reporting institution as required by the policy document, Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/ CFT) – Digital Currencies (Sector 6).

The policy document sets out the minimum requirements and standards that a reporting institution must observe – to increase the transparency of activities relating to digital currencies and ensure effective and robust AML/CFT control measures are put in place.

“We view any steps toward regulation of digital currencies as a very positive sign,” said Vijay Ayyar, head of countries for Luno. “We will continue engaging with various government agencies to ensure that the industry is well understood and that risks are mitigated. We have been working closely with BNM over the past year and similarly with many other regulators globally”.

In a separate status update on Luno’s operations, the digital currency exchanger said it will reactivate withdrawal functionality on April 23, allowing customers to submit new withdrawal requests. All new requests will be processed on May 2.

It said all withdrawals will be processed in batches, with high-value transactions processed first, followed by all other withdrawals. As these transactions will be processed manually, they will take time to process and there will be a small administrative fee charged by Maybank.

Luno allows the trading of the two largest digital currencies – bitcoin and ethereum – on its platform.

Year to date, bitcoin’s price has fallen almost 50% to US$6,757 (RM26,100), while ethereum’s price is down almost 48% at US$398.42.