The Travel Rule is a regulatory requirement by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) established since 2019 that requires financial institutions, including Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) such as cryptocurrency exchanges and wallet providers, to exchange specific customer information during payment transfers.
Is Hata required to comply with the Travel Rule requirements?
Yes, aside from it being a regulatory requirement by the FATF, the Guidelines on Travel Rule for Labuan Digital Financial Services by the Labuan Financial Services Authority (“LFSA”) governing Labuan Reporting Institution undertaking digital financial services, as well as the Guidelines on Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing for Reporting Institutions in the Capital Market (revised 26 April 2021) by the Securities Commission Malaysia (“SC”) governing Registered Market Operators – Digital Asset Exchange (RMO-DAXs) in Malaysia, requires all digital asset transfers to adhere to the Travel Rule requirements. Therefore, Hata is legally obligated to ensure compliance with the Travel Rule.
What information does the Travel Rule require VASPs to reveal?
The Travel Rule normally requires VASPs to reveal information such as the name, identification number, address, and account number or wallet address of the sender or receiver in a transaction. Hata currently requires users to input the full name and cryptocurrency address of the recipient when completing a cryptocurrency send transaction.
This information sharing improves due diligence, risk assessment, and regulatory control in the financial system, allowing authorities to detect and deter illegal activity more efficiently. Hata upholds utmost respect for customer privacy, and will only share information with authorities or regulators where required by law. You can find more detailed information in our Privacy policy.
HATA’s Travel Rule provider
Hata uses Notabene as their Travel Rule solution provider. Notabene keeps a data collection of personal verification of our customers/users and is a component of our transaction monitoring system which enables Hata to transmit or receive virtual asset (VA) transfers on behalf of our customer whilst being in compliance with the Travel Rule.