Mexico’s Senate approved a bill that would regulate the country’s fast-growing financial technology sector, including crowdfunding and cryptocurrency firms, on Tuesday.
Tailored to promote financial stability and defend against money laundering and financing of extremists, the fintech law is expected to pass in a final lower house vote by December 15, according to Reuters sources.
The fintech law also proposes measures to regulate cryptocurrency firms, tasking Mexico’s central bank with overseeing their operations.
Per Mexican periodical El Universal, the bill will allow banks to store cryptocurrencies and payment platforms such as Paypal to process cryptocurrency transactions.
Felipe Vallejo, director of public and regulatory policy at Bitso, an exchange platform for cryptocurrencies, said that the bill brings Mexico in line with other countries:
“For us it was a victory for the sector, because this is being done internationally.”
Fintech companies are looking at major potential growth in Latin America’s No. 2 economy by reaching the more than 50% Mexico’s roughly 120 million citizens without bank accounts.
The proposed legislation aims to set out clear rules and reduce costs to users. That should drive competition in the Mexican fintech sector.