The financial authorities of Mexico rejected that banks can operate with cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, after the businessman.
“The country’s financial institutions are not authorized to carry out and offer to the public operations with virtual assets, such as Bitcoin, Ehter, XRP and others in order to maintain a healthy distance between them and the financial system,” reported the Treasury, Banco de Mexico and the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) in a joint statement.
“Financial institutions that carry out and offer operations with so-called” virtual assets “without authorization would be in breach of regulations and will be subject to applicable sanctions,” the statement said.
Virtual or crypto assets are mechanisms for the storage and exchange of electronic information, they have no intrinsic value and their technological characteristics may have various future uses that may determine their value.
Cryptocurrencies are usually assets with a very volatile value and are considered speculative, according to the authority.
Treasury rules out short-term changes
“Cryptocurrencies are prohibited for use in the financial system, and there is nothing that is expected to change in the near future, that is the joint position of these three entities Banxico, SHCP and CNBV”, said the Secretary of Finance , Arturo Herrera to the press during the presentation of Mexico’s Third Intensified Follow-up Report before Grupo Acción Financiera Internacional (GAFI).
The official explained that this is not a new position, as it has been reiterated through different circulars since cryptocurrencies are built on innovative elements that must be adopted in the financial system, and that a currency has three characteristics: it is a unit of measured, it is a medium of exchange and is a store of value.
“Clearly cryptocurrencies are not reserves of value, it is an asset today that is considered speculative, due to its variations it is not a means of exchange. It is associated with illegal operations to be completely frank because there is no traceability ”, commented Herrera.
Banco Azteca’s intentions
This Sunday, Salinas Pliego, owner of Banco Azteca, said on his Twitter account that bitcoin is a good way to diversify the portfolio of any investor, so he is working to bring it to his clients.
“At Banco Azteca we are working to bring them to our clients and continue promoting freedom,” the businessman wrote on his Twitter account.
The financial authorities warned that in Mexico virtual assets do not constitute legal tender nor are they currencies under the current legal framework; The stablecoin offering has not been authorized either.
“Although they can be exchanged, they do not fulfill the functions of money, since their acceptance as a means of payment is limited and they are not a good reserve or reference of value,” they added.
Banco de México will be in charge of authorizing operations with virtual assets.
Stablecoin warning
On June 17, he started MMXN, a stablecoin linked to the peso. The authorities said that Mexican legislation establishes that in no case will any other asset denominated in legal tender or in foreign currency be understood as a virtual asset.
“These other instruments, unlike virtual assets provided for in national regulations, are units of monetary value that are digitally stored in non-centralized registers (in English, Distributed Ledger Technology) to generate a collection right on the issuer and are issued against the receipt of funds in legal tender, with the purpose of carrying out payment operations to persons other than the issuer, “he explained.
The issuance of these collection rights against the issuer is not different from the fund-raising activity, which is restricted to financial entities regulated in the country.
“If you decide to use the technological infrastructure of a virtual asset to offer these issuance services, you must have the authorization of the law that allows the corresponding capture, as well as the authorization of the Bank of Mexico to use these assets in the internal operation of the institutions. All this in order that its use entails benefits for the users and for the financial system as a whole “, pointed out the authorities.
Banxico warned that those who offer stablecoins without the corresponding authorizations will be subject to infractions.
Money laundering detected
Santiago Nieto, head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), explained that the country has a registry of 23 platforms that operate in the country and that they present their notices to the FIU.
“And yes we have found three cases of irregularities; a gang of Nigerians, an issue of human trafficking, the issue of hackers, where the negative effects, the money laundering operation is generated through cryptocurrencies, everything has been reported to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) ”Said Nieto.
With information from Dainzú Patiño.
