The government of South Korea is aiming to increase openness in public-sector funding by requiring powerful politicians and bureaucrats to reveal their holdings in virtual currencies.
An historic move toward openness and responsibility in government services is about to take place in South Korea as senior officials’ bitcoin holdings are scheduled to be revealed starting in 2024. About 5,800 government workers and elected officials will be required to disclose their cryptocurrency holdings in 2023, as said in a statement by the Ministry of Personnel Management.
Disclosures are a component of the system that keeps tabs on property registration and reviews for public service workers in South Korea as part of their public ethics and transparency drive. These regulations follow new laws enacted in May that mandate annual asset disclosures to include cryptocurrencies.
The country’s goal is to increase openness in public-sector finances, and one way to do this is to require prominent politicians and bureaucrats to reveal their holdings in virtual currencies. Additionally, the register may reveal the conflicts of interest of lawmakers with sizable cryptocurrency holdings who may profit from pertinent legislative actions.
This was confirmed in the report by Kim Seung-ho, the Director of Personnel Management. His words were:
“We anticipate that the public service community’s level of openness will be enhanced with the launch of a unified platform for the disclosure and registration of virtual assets owned by public officials. While maintaining our commitment to public service ethics, we will lay the groundwork for a smooth field implementation of reforms. To do this, we shall explore other avenues.”
The five biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit—are working on a specialized reporting system to help with asset declaration. They want to implement it in June 2024. The exchanges’ goal with the infrastructure is to link the public register database of the government with virtual asset accounts. Finding the virtual holding status useful for property registration will be a breeze with this data, says the research.
South Korean businesses that deal in cryptocurrency trading or issuance will also be required to follow revised FSC accounting rules beginning in 2024. They must provide all relevant information on their assets and operations in order to comply with these regulations. Everything, from the tokens they utilize to their accounting processes, business structures, and more, is detailed here.
The National Assembly of South Korea approved nineteen proposals in June with the goal of strengthening oversight of digital currencies. These measures gave the Bank of Korea and the Financial Services Commission (FSC) direct supervision power. Additional legislation to define consequences for wrongdoing and provide a transparent licensing structure for cryptocurrency exchanges is also in the works.
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