Implementation of the Travel Rule
The UK Crypto Travel Rule came into effect on Friday, 1st of September 2023. As a part of these guidelines, you may have noticed changes in cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals to and from your ICONOMI account.
ICONOMI once again stands at the forefront of compliance. We adhere to the requirements as requested by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
This enables us to provide a better service and to help safeguard the accounts and assets of our users.
What is the Travel Rule?
The Travel Rule requires that the senders (so-called originators) and receivers (so-called beneficiaries) of all transfers of digital funds exchange information. In other words, the sender and receiver of a crypto transfer must provide information on each other.
The Travel Rule applies to all VASPs (Virtual Asset Service Providers), financial institutions, and obliged entities in the UK. The rule is implemented and enforced in order to make it harder for criminals to use cryptocurrencies or other virtual assets to launder money or finance terrorism.
What does it mean for you as an ICONOMI user?
When you make a crypto deposit or withdrawal to or from your ICONOMI account, you will need to provide additional information about the outside account. The information you provide must be correct and legitimate and will be checked and cross-referenced. Otherwise, the transfer may be declined.
What information will be required under the Travel Rule?
Senders (originators) of virtual assets must submit the following information. When withdrawing crypto from ICONOMI, where users have performed KYC (Know Your Customer) verification, the sender's data will be provided automatically:
- Sender's name
- The account number of the originator and the beneficiary (e.g. wallet address), or, if there is no account number, the unique transaction identifier.
- Physical address
- National identity number, customer identification number, or other unique identity numbers
- Date of birth and place of birth
Receivers (beneficiaries) must submit the following information:
- Receiver’s full name, date of birth, and place of birth
- Account/virtual wallet number (where this is necessary to process the transaction)
This information will be sent with the transaction and checked between the sending and receiving asset service providers.
In the section below, we explore three concrete use cases.
Will transaction speed/processing be affected?
Individual transactions might be subject to additional screening and/or requests for obtaining additional information, which may increase delays in transaction execution.
Transactions without valid data might get rejected.
Specific use cases
1) Withdrawing crypto from ICONOMI to another VASP, which is included in the Travel Rule
When you initiate the crypto transfer from ICONOMI to another account, you will have to provide the information of the holder of the account you are sending crypto to. We will need to know the receiver's full name, date of birth, and place of birth, along with their account/virtual wallet number.
That information will then travel with the transaction, where it will be reviewed. If it matches, the transaction will go through.
2) Withdrawing crypto from ICONOMI to an unhosted wallet, VASP, or a service not yet compliant with the Travel Rule system
When you initiate the crypto transfer from ICONOMI to a currently Travel Rule non-complaint account, you will need to declare the same information as explained in case 1. In the future, all registered/authorised crypto service providers are expected to comply with the Travel Rule.
3) Depositing crypto from an unhosted wallet, VASP, or a service not yet included in the Travel Rule system
In this case, no identifying information is tied to that wallet/crypto deposit transaction. You will need to declare the sender's (originator) information upon receiving the deposit on your ICONOMI account.
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