The Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced a plan to team up with the United States, as well as the Asian Development Bank, to crack down on criminals using cryptocurrencies to commit fraud and other financial crimes. The three institutions also organized an International Organization for Securities Commission (IOSCO) Investigation and Enforcement Training Workshop last month to improve their fraud and scam prevention toolkit when it comes to crypto-related crimes.The workshop aims to strengthen the capacity of Philippine SEC enforcement officers in conducting investigations on securities-related crimes such as insider trading, market manipulation, off-market fraud and crypto scams. In addition to the workshop, the Philippine SEC has signed the IOSCO Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Crypto Crime. The regulator has also called on local lawmakers to strengthen their enforcement powers by creating new laws that follow the standards set by IOSCO. The agency believes that representatives of the US SEC and ADB will share their experiences and techniques in catching investment scammers and filing court cases against them. Which will benefit the Philippine SEC.
The alliance between the organizations marks a step forward for the Philippines when it comes to monitoring digital assets in the country. Earlier this year, the Philippines SEC had delayed the release of its regulatory framework for crypto assets, which was scheduled to be released in late 2022.
Crypto remains a controversial issue in the Philippines. The country's Central Bank and the local SEC had some time ago urged its citizens not to get involved in any operations of foreign crypto exchanges. In May 2023, the Philippine SEC declared Gemini derivatives an unregistered security under national law.Despite this the country remains an attractive destination for crypto and is still considered one of the fastest growing economies in the world. More than 11.6 million Filipinos own digital assets. It ranks 10th worldwide in terms of crypto adoption.
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