BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, January 27, 2020 (Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister) – The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis on Thursday, January 23, passed legislation in the National Assembly that will help to facilitate the ease of doing business in today’s cashless society.
The Virtual Assets Bill, 2020, which is a Bill to provide for the regulation of Virtual Assets Business from St. Christopher and Nevis and with persons from St. Christopher and Nevis and for related matters, received the overwhelming support of the Members of Parliament and was subsequently passed.
This move by the Team Unity administration was welcomed by two known figures in the international digital currency community – Mr. Roger Ver, a promoter of bitcoin and bitcoin cash globally, and Mr. Daniel Kelman, General Counsel.
Speaking with the Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister, Mr. Roger Ver commended the Government on taking the necessary steps to further development its financial services sector and to protect the sector through the creation of the necessary regulatory framework.
Mr. Ver, the Executive Chairman of Bitcoin.com, said virtual assets or digital currency is the direction in which today’s society is heading. He stated that one of the biggest benefits to digital currency is the ease of conducting business from one location to any other place in the world.
“The big benefit is in addition to being able to pay someone from across the cash register table or across the room, you can pay people across the planet. As you know, many of the cars in St. Kitts are bought from Japan, using virtual currency you can pay from here to Japan instantly for a tenth of a penny, whereas with the bank wire transfers will cost you a bunch of money and take at least several days,” said Mr. Ver.
Mr. Kelman agreed with the sentiments expressed by Mr. Ver. He added, “You can have a business in St. Kitts and do business all over the world, and so for St. Kitts to have a small business here on the island and reach out to the whole world as if there was no border that is exactly the direction should be going.”
While moving the bill through the National Assembly, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris stated that the Virtual Assets Bill, 2020 will ensure that each provider participating in virtual asset services in the Federation are subjected to a registration and supervisory regime which would allow for compliance with the existing Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) legislative framework in St. Kitts and Nevis and by extension, comply with the related international standards set out by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
