South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service, Customs Service, and credit card companies have joined forces to crack down on cryptocurrency "currency exchange" and illegal overseas cash withdrawals.

PANews reported on March 17 that, according to New Daily, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the Korea Customs Service, the Credit Finance Association, and nine credit card companies in South Korea signed a "Public-Private Partnership Agreement to Block Transnational Criminal Funds." This plan aims to cut off the funding chain for telephone fraud and virtual asset crimes at its source by analyzing overseas credit card usage details and immigration records. Previously, due to information gaps between institutions, the Korea Customs Service, while possessing immigration data, could not monitor abnormal overseas spending in real time, while credit card companies, although having payment data, lacked information on cardholders' customs clearance activities. Under the new mechanism, the Korea Customs Service will provide credit card companies with information on high-risk transactions, while the Financial Supervisory Service will formulate guidelines authorizing credit card companies to take effective measures such as directly suspending transactions upon detecting anomalies.

Lee Chan-jin, head of the Financial Supervisory Service of South Korea, stated that this move signifies the establishment of a routine monitoring system in South Korea to prevent the outflow of criminal proceeds overseas at their source. The system will focus on precisely targeting "currency exchange" activities involving the use of overseas credit cards to withdraw cash from ATMs abroad and laundering money through cryptocurrencies.