Finland passed a law that empowers the country's regulatory watchdog to supervise the operations of local crytpocurrency exchanges.
The Virtual Currency Service Providers Act will come into effect in November, providing legal status to crypto assets, which is expected to significantly improve Bitcoin's standing as a viable and legitimate financial network.
The Finnish Parliament, known in Finnish as Eduskunta Riksdagen, passed a new Act on Virtual Currency Service Providers, and an amendment to the Act on Detecting and Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.
The "AML law" will bring virtual currency services such as custodian wallet providers and exchanges under the supervision of the Financial Supervisory Authority of Finland.
Under the law, crypto currency exchanges will have to bolster customer identity verification procedures to improve AML and KYC requirements.
Finland's regulations and newly introduced policies have already made it harder for many crypto businesses to allow trading without verification.
Finnish BTC trading platform Localbitcoins said under the new exchange supervision mandate, the FSA is imposing stricter AML/KYC guidelines.
The Helsinki-based company said in a blog post that they have launched a new account registration process, and that users will be able to begin trading only after they sign up.
Corporate accounts will have to follow a separate verification process.
LocalBitcoins said it is taking improvement measures that will allow it to provide a safer and better service conforming to the regulations.
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