In South Korea regulators are scrutinising a handful of unnamed commercial banks over their possible relationship with the bitcoin exchange ecosystem. 

In a statement issued on January 8th by the Financial Services Commission, joint investigations have been instigated by the FSS (Financial Supervisory Service) and the KoFIU (Korea Financial Intelligence Unit) into six commercial banks who offer trading accounts to Korean cryptocurrency exchanges. Investigating inspectors intend to find out if the banks are complying with their AML obligations (Anti Money Laundering) and rules relating to customer identification (Know Your Customer). 

The official press release stated that officials will be investigating whether there are electronic systems in place to match the names of deposit holders at the banks with the names of virtual account holders. They also want to know whether the banks can stop transactions with digital currency exchanges, if they refuse to provide them with the requisite customer information. The FSC underlined the obligation of the banks \"to assume a greater responsibility as gate keepers\" to prevent the spread of money laundering in the country. 

The South Korean government has taken steps to monitor cryptocurrency trading in recent months, and is considering a number of regulatory options. These include total shutdown of cryptocurrency exchanges, in order to deal with the harmful side effects of the trade – such as over-speculation, hacking and fraud.