AML

On January 21, 2026, CIEL Deputy Director Professor Yueh-Ping Yang was invited to speak at the 17th Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Financial Crime Conference—Taiwan, hosted by the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS). In his featured lecture, titled “Transparency of Legal Persons and Legal Arrangements,” Professor Yang examined the central role of the beneficial ownership regime within the anti-money laundering framework, drawing on international standards and Taiwan’s current legal system.

Professor Yang first outlined the requirements under Recommendations 24 and 25 of the FATF Recommendations concerning beneficial ownership for legal persons and legal arrangements. He emphasized that the FATF calls on jurisdictions to ensure that competent authorities can obtain beneficial ownership information on legal persons and legal arrangements swiftly and effectively, and to adopt effective measures to prevent the misuse of nominee shareholders or nominee directors for money laundering or terrorist financing.

Turning to Taiwan’s legal framework, Professor Yang referenced Article 22-1 of the Company Act and Article 11 of the Money Laundering Control Act, noting that while the current system imposes reporting and record-keeping obligations for certain company information and for some trustees, Taiwan still relies heavily on financial institutions and DNFBPs to identify beneficial owners. A comprehensive system for the reporting and centralized access to beneficial ownership information has yet to be fully established. Significant transparency gaps also remain with respect to nominee shareholders/directors, legal persons other than companies, and legal arrangements other than trusts.

By comparing international AML standards with Taiwan’s existing legal framework and regulatory practices, the lecture identified key areas where further reforms are needed to enhance the transparency of legal persons and legal arrangements, and offered important policy and legislative insights for strengthening Taiwan’s anti-money laundering and counter-financial crime regime.

The roundtable session was moderated by CIEL CEO Chung-Chia Huang, joined by panelists Deputy Director Chao-Hung Chen, Deputy Director Yueh-Ping Yang, Prof. Ying-Shin Tsai, and Assoc. Prof. Yi-Chen Lai.

Legal Characterization of Tokenization

CEO Chung-Chia Huang opened the discussion by raising a core question: Should the legal nature of tokens be determined by the underlying rights they represent or by the electronic records on the blockchain itself? Deputy Director Chen opined that tokens often sit between claims and property rights, functioning more like “value carriers.” He noted that the current international trend increasingly relies on the concept of “control” to determine ownership. This elevates the role of system operators in identifying and transferring rights. Deputy Director Yang observed that domestic courts tend to treat tokens as movables, while academics consider them intangible assets; the legal categorization remains unsettled. Associate Prof. Lai further reminded the audience that whether tokens possess exclusive control is still unclear—reflecting the ongoing evolution of their legal nature.

Regulatory Adjustments and Tokenized Payment Instruments

On the regulatory front, panelists emphasized the need to consider emerging risks within the existing legal and regulatory framework. Deputy Director Yang explained that if a tokenized payment instrument retains its original functional characteristics, existing regulations may continue to apply. However, when market volatility, ledger unpredictability, or anonymity introduce new risks, regulatory reinforcement becomes necessary. Many jurisdictions regulate stablecoins under frameworks similar to electronic payments, illustrating this approach. He also noted that tokenized payments exert limited impact on monetary policy, as funds ultimately settle back within the banking system.

Cross-Border Finality and AML Challenges

During the open Q&A, participants first asked how to determine finality in cross-border transactions. Deputy Director Yang explained that if a single stablecoin dominates the market, its issuer can define finality within its system. However, in a more diverse market, financial institutions probably can negotiate common principles to define finality through contracts. Globally, two approaches coexist: one relying on the distributed ledger itself as the basis for finality, and another centered on “control,” which is conceptually closer to possession.

Regarding AML, when smart contracts automatically settle transactions to blacklisted addresses, risk allocation often depends on contractual arrangements. However, if blacklist information relies on international databases, information asymmetry may arise—posing an important regulatory challenge for Taiwan.

Global Trends in Tokenization

Finally, audience asked about international use cases and trends for tokenizing financial and non-financial assets. Deputy Director Chen noted that global regulation remains fragmented, with high-value financial assets more likely to be tokenized first. Assoc. Prof. Lai highlighted Japan’s experimentation with lower-value assets—such as alcohol products, GameFi items, and hotel usage rights—to reduce public concerns, suggesting that tokenization may expand gradually from everyday-use scenarios.

CIEL will continue advancing research on RWA, tokenized payment instruments, and Web 3.0 financial regulation. Through interdisciplinary analysis across civil law, criminal law, financial regulation, and international standards, we aim to offer concrete policy recommendations. Our goal is to help Taiwan build a corporate legal framework that balances innovation with stability amid rapid technological and regulatory transformation, while strengthening CIEL’s role as a key platform for industry–government–academia dialogue and legal innovation.

On April 25, 2025, Deputy Director Professor Yueh-Ping Yang of CIEL attended the award ceremony hosted by the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), where he was honored with the 2024 Ta-You Wu Memorial Award.

Since 2018, Professor Yang has dedicated his research to blockchain finance and the regulation of virtual assets. His work spans a wide range of topics, including initial coin offerings, the issuance and settlement of security-type virtual assets, regulation of virtual asset trading platforms, decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), anti-money laundering (AML) measures for virtual assets, cross-border supervision, and comparative legal studies on international virtual asset regulation. His research on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) was particularly distinguished, as it was one of only four papers selected globally at the 2022 Washington FinTech Week and was subsequently published in the SSCI-indexed Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business.

Professor Yang’s research achievements not only contribute significantly to academic scholarship but have also had a substantial impact on the development of Taiwan’s virtual asset regulatory framework over the past five years. He has been invited to provide policy consultation, legal recommendations, and training to multiple government agencies, including the Financial Supervisory Commission, the Executive Yuan’s Anti-Money Laundering Office, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Digital Affairs, and the Ministry of Justice. His contributions include assisting authorities in drafting the AML registration system for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), the draft Virtual Asset Service Act, and regulatory guidelines for VASPs and stablecoins, thereby making a profound impact on both theory and practice.