South Korea Launches AML Taskforce Ahead of 2028 FATF Review

Key Takeaways

• KoFIU Launches AML Reform Effort: South Korea’s financial intelligence unit has created a new taskforce to overhaul key anti-money laundering rules under the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information.
• Crypto Rules Face Expansion: Regulators plan to broaden the travel rule for virtual asset service providers to cover transfers below KRW 100 million and begin preparing AML measures for stablecoins.
• Alignment With Global Standards: The taskforce will review measures such as suspending suspicious accounts during investigations and extending AML obligations to lawyers, accountants, and tax professionals.

Deep Dive

The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (Korea Financial Intelligence Unit) recently held the first meeting of a new taskforce tasked with revisiting the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information. While the meeting itself was procedural, the mandate behind it is anything but. The taskforce is meant to modernize Korea’s AML framework, sharpen responses to cross-border crime and large-scale financial fraud, and prepare the ground for South Korea’s next mutual evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force in 2028.

Officials used the kickoff session to take stock. Taskforce members reviewed which parts of the existing regime no longer reflect current risks and agreed on how the work will unfold going forward. The group is scheduled to meet twice a month, with KoFIU aiming to pull together a formal package of AML improvement measures in the first half of 2026.

One of the clearest signals from the meeting was that virtual assets are firmly in regulators’ sights. The taskforce plans to expand Korea’s application of the travel rule for virtual asset service providers. At present, VASPs are required to share sender and recipient information only when transferring virtual assets worth 100 million won or more between providers.

Under the proposed changes, that requirement would extend to transfers below that threshold, bringing a much larger share of crypto transactions into the AML perimeter. The taskforce also plans to start drafting AML measures in anticipation of forthcoming rules on stablecoins and the knock-on effects those products are expected to have across the virtual asset ecosystem.

The review will not stop at crypto. As part of its preparation for the FATF evaluation, the taskforce is examining ways to bring Korea’s AML framework closer to global standards. One proposal under consideration is the introduction of powers to temporarily suspend activity on suspicious accounts during ongoing investigations, a tool intended to prevent criminal proceeds from being moved out of reach while cases are still developing.

Regulators are also weighing whether to introduce AML obligations for attorneys, certified public accountants, and tax accountants, a step that would align Korea more closely with jurisdictions that already treat these professions as potential gatekeepers in financial crime.

Enforcement practices are the third area on the agenda. KoFIU said the taskforce will look at how to improve the effectiveness of AML requirements while also making inspection and sanctions systems more reasonable and impartial, addressing long-running concerns about consistency and proportionality in supervision.

For now, the taskforce is in its early, exploratory phase. But the structure and scope of its mandate suggest that Korea is taking a deliberate approach, starting years ahead of its FATF review rather than scrambling at the last moment. The real test will come as these discussions translate into concrete policy proposals over the next year, shaping how Korea balances financial innovation, professional oversight, and enforcement credibility in its AML regime.

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