Cryptocurrency payments firm UTRUST announced on Friday that it has been given the green light to join the Financial Services Standards Association (FSSA).
A Swiss self-regulating organization, the FSSA also has the approval of FINMA - Switzerland's main financial regulator.
The decision means that UTRUST will be able to operate as a ‘financial intermediary’ under the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act.
As a result, the firm can start working as a digital Payments technology provider. In a statement, UTRUST also said joining the FSSA would allow it to speed up the onboarding process for both merchants and customers.
“Securing this SRO membership gives further credibility to UTRUST, our operational model and to the Blockchain ecosystem as a whole," said Nuno Correia, a UTRUST co-founder and the company's chief executive officer.
"This sets a new standard for blockchain companies and sends a strong message that this technology is here to stay.”
More regulation, more auditing
Firms that join the FSSA are subject to a number of compliance requirements.
That means UTRUST will be audited regularly. More significantly, the payments company will also have to be extremely scrupulous about its client onboarding process.
The firm said that it is required to meet anti-money laundering and know-your-business rules and that its operations will be monitored regularly to ensure that it does.
"Although the ecosystem is decentralized at its core, for companies to prosper and grow, engage with other companies in the mass market and expand its operations, we believe that regulation is imperative," added Correia
"Time has shown us that unregulated companies are not conducive to a prosperous ecosystem, as they allow bad actors to have an undue influence on the market."
