In brief

Supreme Decree No. 006-2023-JUS has been published in the official gazette El Peruano. It provides that virtual asset service providers (PSAVs) are obligated subjects (SO) and must report to the Peruvian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-Peru) in matters of prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism (MLAFT).

In depth

In depth

Below, we review the main aspects related to this standard:

I. What are virtual assets?

According to the General Glossary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations, a virtual asset is a digital representation of value that can be traded or transferred digitally and can be used for payments or investments.

II. What are PSAVs?

PSAVs comprise any natural or legal person, domiciled or incorporated in Peru (including branches established in the country of foreign legal persons) that, as part of its business, carries out one or more of the following activities or operations for or on behalf of another natural or legal person:

Trading between virtual assets and fiat¹ or legal tender currencies
Trading between one or more forms of virtual assets
Transferring of virtual assets
Custody and/or administration of virtual assets or instruments enabling control over virtual assets
Participation in and provision of financial services related to offering of an issuer and/or sale of a virtual asset

III. What does incorporation as an SO imply?

It implies that these SOs will be subject to a special supervisory regime for the prevention of MLATF, which would be exercised by the Superintendency of Banking, Insurance and AFP, through the FIU-Peru. They must also comply with certain obligations provided for in the legislation, such as designating a compliance officer, implementing an MLAFT prevention system (SPLAFT) and reporting to the FIU-Peru on those operations carried out or attempted that qualify as suspicious.

IV. What is coming?

As this is the first regulatory instrument on PSAVs that has been issued in Peru, it is possible that complementary rules will be issued to regulate its activity more intensely.

For the time being, the FIU-Peru has yet to issue a specific regulation applicable to these new SOs, developing the scope of the SPLAFT that they must implement.

Notwithstanding the above, considering that the rule is already in force, these SOs can start the referred implementation based on the general provisions foreseen in Law No. 27693, the law that created the FIU-Peru, and its regulation, approved by Supreme Decree No. 020-2017-JUS.

We hope this information has been useful for you. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require any advice in this regard.

Click here to read the Spanish version.

1 A currency that is issued by a centralized entity in charge of a country’s monetary policy (e.g., a central bank), which obtains its value from the issuer