Halister News

(Bloomberg) -- Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem says the council working group is looking at “the possibility to do research on clients with virtual currencies like bitcoins, and pre-paid cards and the exchange of information between the financial intelligence units” in the effort to fight money laundering.

• “There are a number of proposals which are an extension of the anti-money laundering guidelines which are still under discussion in the working group,” Dijsselbloem tells reporters in Brussels before a meeting of European Union finance ministers
• “We don’t expect decisions to be taken, it’s more like a step in the state of play”
• “After last summer and the terrorist attacks, there is a bigger need to exchange more information between the investigation units in the various countries”
• “The discussion is now about what can we do in researching clients, when terrorists finance themselves via virtual currencies or pre-paid cards”
• “What we are allowed to do when it’s about cash, but this still doesn’t happen with this kind of payment”
• “The issue is, should that also be the case in instances of bitcoin transactions”