TechFlow News, May 28: According to CriptoNoticias, on May 25, Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly unanimously approved, during its second debate, an amendment to Law No. 7786, explicitly defining anti-money laundering (AML) obligations for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and mandating their registration with the General Superintendency of Financial Entities (Sugef).
The law defines VASPs as natural or legal persons engaged in activities involving the exchange of virtual assets for fiat currency, transfer, custody, or management of virtual assets. It requires them to fulfill obligations including customer and beneficial owner identification, due diligence, record-keeping of transactions, and reporting of suspicious transactions. This new law partially responds to prior warnings from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regarding regulatory gaps in Costa Rica’s crypto-asset oversight.
