By Susie Violet Ward · Forbes · 2 July 2026
The UK has taken over the presidency of the Financial Action Task Force, with fraud at the centre of its two-year agenda. The proposed response includes larger datasets and faster information sharing between financial firms, technology platforms and telecommunications companies.
The article examines what happens when a compliance system designed around banks is extended to Bitcoin. Bank records are private, while Bitcoin transactions sit on a public ledger. Once an identity is connected to a wallet address, activity can potentially be followed over time. It looks at Australia’s Travel Rule, physical attacks against crypto holders in France and the limits of decades of anti-money laundering controls, with a focus on whether expanded data collection actually reduces fraud.