Central Bank of Israel Raised Request For DLT Information

According to a report published on 18th Dec, the team representatives of Central bank of Israel raised a request for information about DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology). The title of the request was “Regulatory Coordination of Virtual Assets,” which says that the regulatory bodies of Israel financial system feel that there is a possibility to revive and stimulate the coordination and cooperation between public and regulators in regard to Distributed Ledger Technology.

Other than the representatives of Israel bank, the team also consisted of representatives from the country’s Securities Authority, the Tax Authority, the Ministries of Finance and Justice, the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing and different local regulatory bodies. The request asked about the information relevant to restrictions for the building of local DLT industry. The document inquires more precisely about the difficulties encountered by the local DLT fundraisers, investors, companies and the customers who are dealing with Virtual Currencies or digital assets.

It also requests for the details about the risks involved while dealing with the digital assets and the possible opportunities of DLT in the financial market. Finally, the request also asks for the information about how DLT could help in addressing issues like terrorism financing and anti-money laundering. The last date for all the interested parties to submit information is 31st December 2018.

According to a report published in November, an Israeli study group investigated digital asset options and had recommended the Central bank of Israel not to issue its own virtual currency or digital asset. In early December, Former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak tried to understand the difference between digital currencies to Ponzi Schemes. And then he made sure that he would never invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or any other virtual currency.