IMF urges Philippine central bank to collect crypto exchange transaction data and use data for macroeconomic analysis

According to Cointelegraph reported on January 2, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged the Philippine Central Bank to explore the possibility of collecting data on cross-border movement of crypto assets.

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Based on a data survey conducted by the IMF's Monetary and Financial Statistics Mission in the Philippines in July 2019, the organization proposed this in a technical assistance report document issued on December 30, 2019 A suggestion.

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Recommendations from IMF missions

According to the report, the IMF's mission in the Philippines held a lecture earlier this year on the handling of crypto assets in macroeconomic statistics at the request of the Central Bank of the Philippines (BSP). The report summarizes the mission's lectures and states:

"The Philippines may become an important market for crypto assets, as the Philippines has recently approved the operation of three other virtual currency exchanges (VCEs), bringing the total number of approved VCEs to 10."

In view of this increasing number, the IMF mission encourages the central bank to begin exploring the possibility of collecting data on these cryptocurrency exchanges for macroeconomic analysis of international financial flows using crypto assets.

The mission proposed that the Philippine Central Bank request quarterly total transaction data from cryptocurrency exchanges.

It noted that the data should indicate the country of origin and destination of exchange-traded funds, and if they were broken down, information that would reveal the parties involved in transactions between individuals, financial companies and non-financial companies would be most useful.

Philippine central bank signals mixed

Since February 2017, the Philippine Central Bank has required domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to register as remittance and transfer companies and to implement specific safeguards including anti-money laundering, combating terrorist financing, risk management and consumer protection.

In June 2019, BitMEX Ventures invested in the Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX), which was licensed by the Philippine Central Bank. In July of the same year, the Philippine Central Bank also encrypted two currencies, Virtual Currency Philippines, Inc. and ETranss. Currency exchange opened Philippine Peso (Peso) and virtual currency exchange business gave a green light.

Despite these positive developments, the Philippine central bank governor has issued a strong warning about the potential risks of using cryptocurrencies for terrorist financing and emphasized that the central bank will continue to closely monitor the use of cryptocurrencies in the country. He added that the Philippines "cannot completely ignore central banks or third parties that provide lenders of last resort".

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