Malta Financial Authority partners with CipherTrace for Compliance

Malta Financial Services Authority (‘MFSA’) has partnered with CipherTrace Compliance Monitoring to monitor and manage business risks related to Malta licensed virtual asset businesses and cryptocurrencies. The CipherTrace Compliance Monitoring solution continuously rates the risks of cryptocurrency businesses to protect consumers, investors and business partners.

CipherTrace is an effective Supervisory Technology (‘SupTech’) tool which, through the cryptocurrency anti-money laundering, cryptocurrency forensics, and blockchain threat intelligence solutions it offers, will enable MFSA to manage the risk associated with virtual asset businesses. “Being strongly aware of the money laundering and financing of terrorism risks associated with entities operating in this sphere, the decision has been taken to engage the services of CipherTrace in order to reduce fraud and detect transactions with illegal sources of funds. CipherTrace Compliance Monitoring will provide the MFSA with powerful oversight tools to automate regulatory processes and audit the risk management of virtual asset businesses that are licensed in Malta,” said MFSA Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Cuschieri.

CipherTrace Compliance Monitoring uses machine learning to de-anonymize transactions, which helps regulators evaluate and monitor the trustworthiness of virtual asset businesses. This solution tracks the risk exposure of virtual asset businesses including cryptocurrency exchanges, collective investment schemes and initial coin offerings (ICOs) to gauge and measure potential exposure. “This SupTech will allow the MFSA to monitor the activities of crypto businesses both pre- as well as post-authorisation stage,” said Dave Jevans, CEO CipherTrace.

“Cryptocurrency businesses often have difficulty establishing trust and maintaining banking relationships because of their perceived risk. Banks and other financial institutions use the CipherTrace Compliance Monitoring solution to help decide which virtual asset businesses to trust as corporate customers. These insights help banks avoid de-risking by turning away valuable customers in this lucrative and fast growing sector,” said Dave Jevans, CEO CipherTrace.

CipherTrace helps assure the trustworthiness of virtual asset market participants worldwide, and through its Compliance Monitoring solution delivers a broad, high-resolution view of the cryptocurrency transaction landscape.

CipherTrace machine learning algorithms calculate risk levels for exchanges, addresses, wallets and other entities based on known associations, criminal addresses, and money laundering services. CipherTrace also profiles hundreds of global exchanges, dark markets, mixers, gambling services, high-yield investment products, and ATMs to determine risk levels of transactions based on activity related to suspicious addresses and wallets.