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There was another incident where crypto-assets—or virtual currencies as newspapers still call them—were outflowed.
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Is this about Tech Bureau?
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Yes, it is Tech Bureau, Corp. It is said that the total amount of unauthorized outflow of the assets was approximately 6.7 billion yen. What is your view on this case?
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Before now, Tech Bureau, Corp. was received a business improvement order twice. Despite that, it is very regrettable that the unauthorized outflow of the assets has occurred, because of having problems with their systems as well as their governance. We issued an order on the 18th September and we are asking them to submit a report on what happened and how they are protecting their customers. In addition, we started an on-site inspection yesterday and we are currently trying to investigate the details. In any case, we need to again understand the situation thoroughly, and we have to take the necessary administrative actions from the viewpoint of user protection. The total amount of unauthorized outflow, 6.7 billion yen, consists of 4.5 billion yen belonged to customers and more than 2 billion yen belonged to the company. We have been taking various actions against seven registered broker dealers and ten quasi-broker dealers who were identified as having problems. We have published some information on the problems found in our on-site inspections as an interim report. Including on these cases, we need to rigorously monitor the problems found in our inspections.
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Unlike the case of Coincheck, Inc., that a large amount of assets were outflowed before, the Financial Services Agency had once accepted the Tech Bureau’s registration application. This difference seems to be making the problem more serious. Tech Bureau has been using as one of their advertising statements that they were registered by the FSA. But, this incident still occurred. What do you think about this result? Was it right to register them in the first place?
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This is a very regrettable case. We inspected this company twice in January or February this year and issued a business improvement order twice. In that sense, I think we have to take further actions one more time in order to address the company’s problems. In any case, this incident will have a large impact on how we will deal with these businesses that handle virtual currencies or crypto-assets. In the sense that we need to properly develop innovative technologies such as blockchain, it is very regrettable that these kinds of problems emerge. We need to continue carefully investigating what is actually happening and then take the necessary administrative actions.