Binance has, in a statement announcing a raft of changes within its peer-to-peer (P2P), restated its devotion to comply with the dynamic regulatory framework. A key focus of the statement is restating its compliance with sanctions.
Binance emphasized the need to comply with policies imposed to avert crypto exchanges becoming the conduit of illicit financing and facilitating money laundering activity. The statement indicated that crypto exchange Binance expelled Banco de Venezuela, citing the acquisition of the financial institutions wholly acquired by the sanctioned government.
Binance Portraying Strict Compliance with Sanctions
Binance’s decision to delist Banco de Venezuela as a payment method from the P2P trading service mirrors the previous week’s move to strike off the sanctioned Russian banks. Binance removed Tinkoff and Sberbank in an effort considered by the crypto community as an attempt to align with the spirit of international financial sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Venezuelan users disclosed that this week, Banco de Venezuela was no longer available as an alternative payment option. It adds to the list of such removals effected by Binance in August.
Binance decision to Banco de Venezuela traces to the disclosure by the Thursday, August 24 publication by the Wall Street Journal lamenting its facilitative input to circumvent the international financial sanctions.
Banco de Venezuela is among the largest financial institutions on the northern coast of South America. A review of the bank in the 2000s portrayed it as holding the third spot with an estimated 11% local market share. However, its ownership changed when the private holding company Grupo Santander sold it to the government for $1 billion.
Binance Cut Ties With State-Owned Banco de Venezuela
Banco de Venezuela would suffer sanctions imposed towards the Venezuelan government for alleged repression of 2014-17 protects. The sanctions by the US Department of Treasury targeted the Venezuelan government leaders and affiliate institutions in 2018 and 2019.
The move to delist Banco de Venezuela from the payments list has not extended to excluding private Venezuelan banks. Local media reports on users’ experience indicate the availability of Banesco, BBVA Provincial, and Banplus as alternatives within the Binance P2P platform.
The action undertaken by Binance against the state-owned bank in Venezuela underscores the surge in awareness and race to compliance. It emerges from the WSJ revelation that Binance payment options in Russia featured the sanctioned duo Sberbank and Tinkoff.
ByBit and OKX Replicate Binance Move to Delist Sanctioned Banks
The revelation prompted action by Binance, leaving them invisible within the list of P2P payments. However, a subsequent discovery that the options were retained though coded yellow and green being the representative brand colors.
Subsequent investigation by journalists proved they were entirely removed, as confirmed by the Binance spokesperson on Friday, August 25. The move to eliminate sanctioned parties appeared on Monday, August 28. The report indicated that OKX and Bybit replicated Binance’s decision by eliminating the sanctioned Russian banks.
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