Legality of cryptocurrency still under consideration — Khalid Samad
KUALA LUMPUR: The government has yet to make a final decision whether to legalise the use of cryptocurrency and digital currency in the country.
Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad said the matter was unclear as it was still under consideration.
“People have asked me if these (cryptocurrency and digital currency) currencies are legal or illegal. At the moment, the answer is neither legal nor illegal as the situation is still unclear.
“Yes, I was involved in the launch of Harapan Coin. However, I was not appointed as finance minister. Instead, I became federal territories minister.
“As the matter is not under my jurisdiction, I cannot push too much,” he told reporters after officiating a tea reception and school aid presentation for 100 orphans and deserving children in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur organised by Pertubuhan Kebajikan Insaniah Srikandi Malaysia here. BEIJING: The Bank of China’s New York branch will enable Chinese firms to receive payment in yuan rather than dollars from their sales on US e-commerce platforms this year, the official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
Pledging to introduce more services for small and mediumsized enterprises engaged in cross-border trade between the US and China, executives from the branch said payment in yuan would be possible by tapping new functions of e-MPay, a crossborder payment system launched by the branch in 2016.
The branch is developing a system using an existing platform to “facilitate trade finance for e-commerce players,” said Xu Chen, president and chief executive officer of Bank of China US, Xinhua reported, without providing further details.
The system will adhere to US anti-money laundering rules through artificial intelligence and cyber security technologies, Xu added.
Bank of China has run into problems with overseas antimoney laundering regulations in the past.
In February 2017, it agreed to pay a 600,000 euros (US$688,000) fine to settle a case involving its Milan branch. Prosecutors had alleged more than 4.5 billion euros was smuggled to China from Italy between 2006 and 2010. — Reuters
Khalid made the comments when he spoke on the success of the event’s co-organiser, Blockchains. My, who succeeded in introducing the new digital technologies.
The minister had previously proposed to Bank Negara Malaysia and Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to use the Harapan Coin cryptocurrency for government transactions. — Bernama
Bank of China to enable payment in yuan on US ecommerce platforms