Thailand Targets “Grey Money” With Tighter Gold and Crypto Oversight

• Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas and other agencies were assigned to shut loopholes in gold trades without physical delivery and in digital asset flows. 
• SEC wants to harshly enforce the Travel Rule that requires digital asset providers to recognise both the sender and receiver in wallet-to-wallet transfers. 

The government of Thailand has booked a wide clampdown on so-called grey money, taking regulators to tighten oversight of gold trading and virtual assets and associating financial data over agencies to make money laundering more firm to hide. 

‘Grey money’ is a term used by the officials for funds that shift via legal-booking channels but mostly originate from criminal syndicates, tax evasion, or other illegal activity, mostly when traders use gaps between old rules for physical assets and fresh platforms for virtual transactions, as per a local outlet report. 

The Prime Minister of Thailand, Anutin Charnvirakul, planned the push after being the chair at a high-level session at the Finance Ministry on January 9, with Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas and other agencies assigned to shut loopholes in gold trades without physical delivery and in digital asset flows. 

The core part of the plan remains Data Bureau, a shared system that associates datasets from apt agencies through Open API to provide officials a single view of suspicious activity over gold, digital assets, e-wallets, foreign exchange and cash, without making a fresh standalone agency. 

More Stricter Implementation

Talking about gold, the anti-money laundering officials have been asked to reduce the mandatory reporting threshold for gold bar purchases from the recent 2M baht level to a more reduced level, targeting to stop smurfing, where a large amount is further split into smaller transactions to dodge detection. 

Regulators also want to draw online gold trading under firm supervision. The Revenue Department is observing a new specific business tax for platforms that ease gold trades without physical delivery, and the government wants harsh accounting, special accounts for providers, and reporting that permits state audits. 

If we talk about crypto, the Securities and Exchange Commission wants to harshly enforce the Travel Rule that requires digital asset providers to recognise both the sender and receiver in wallet-to-wallet transfers. 

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