US Congress Asks Financial Crime Director to Study Blockchain Tech

The United States House of Representatives has passed a bill that calls for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to study blockchain technology in its fight against financial crime.

"The Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network shall carry out a study on whether AI, digital identity technologies, blockchain technologies, and other innovative technologies can be further leveraged to make FinCEN's data analysis more efficient and effective."

The Senate received the bill on Sept. 23, and referred it to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Crypto and casinosCointelegraph previously reported that FinCEN Director Kenneth Blanco urged casinos to follow the guidelines of the financial crime-fighting agency in regards to suspicious convertible virtual currency activity.

"I encourage casinos to closely review both documents on FinCEN's website to see how we are addressing this industry and its interactions with others in the financial sector. Casinos should be filing SARs when they encounter suspicious CVC activity and any cyber events that affect, facilitate, or conduct transactions. We know that casinos are targets for cyber and cyber-enabled criminal activity such as ransomware attacks and business e-mail compromise schemes."

Blanco briefed members of the US House about Facebook's Libra coinOn June 28, Cointelegraph reported that Blanco briefed several members of the United States House on the potential for Libra's use in crimes such as money laundering, and illicit financing activities.

Blanco talked about current research into artificial intelligence and machine learning and their use in regulating cryptocurrencies.