Austria Halts New KuCoin EU Business Over AML and Sanctions Gaps

[cryptoenthusiast]

Austria’s financial regulator, the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), has prohibited KuCoin EU Exchange from conducting new business, citing deficiencies in internal compliance structures related to Anti-Money Laundering (AML), counter-terrorist financing (CTF), and sanctions oversight.

The decision prevents KuCoin’s Vienna-based entity from onboarding new customers or launching new products within existing client relationships until key compliance roles are “appropriately filled.”

According to Sabina Liu, managing director of KuCoin EU, two professionals responsible for AML and sanctions functions recently departed. She noted the company had already begun recruiting replacements and had voluntarily paused new onboarding and certain trading activities before the regulator’s notice.

KuCoin emphasized the issue is limited in scope and does not expect long-term disruption to its broader European strategy.

[kevin1]

crypto firms discovering that governance is in fact a full time job