Austria’s regulator slaps new business ban on KuCoin’s EU exchange

The Austrian Financial Market Authority has frozen new business at KuCoin EU months after granting the exchange a MiCA license, citing gaps in key AML and sanctions roles.

Austria’s financial regulator has prohibited KuCoin EU Exchange from conducting new business, citing breaches of internal organizational requirements around Anti-Money Laundering (AML), counter-terrorist financing (CTF) and the observance of financial sanctions.

The Thursday decision by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) means KuCoin’s Vienna-based entity cannot onboard new customers or conclude new contracts or products within existing relationships until key compliance functions are “appropriately filled.”

Sabina Liu, managing director at KuCoin EU, told Cointelegraph that two compliance professionals holding designated AML and sanctions oversight functions in Austria had “recently departed,” and that such mobility was common in “any regulated industry.”

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