Japan’s Financial Services Agency on July 24 released the results of the 13th supported project under its FinTech Proof of Concept Hub, outlining a trial focused on anti-money laundering information sharing for crypto assets and electronic payment instruments. According to the agency’s official notice, the experiment ran from March to May 2026 and tested whether businesses could share risk information across institutions.
Hitachi led a cross-industry group of more than 15 participants
The project was proposed and led by Hitachi, Ltd. More than 15 organizations joined the test, spanning banks, stablecoin-related firms, exchanges, and technology companies. The participants included Aozora Bank, yen stablecoin JPYC, GMO Coin, Chainalysis Japan, NEC, and Rakuten Wallet.
The central question was whether private-sector participants could jointly share suspicious blockchain addresses, transaction data, risk categories, risk scores, and the reasons behind those assessments. The goal was to improve AML detection capacity across the sector. The report also noted that JPYC is Japan’s first yen stablecoin to receive regulatory recognition and had previously been integrated into the LINE built-in wallet.
Three monitoring methods were tested and found workable
The framework combined three types of monitoring. One was post-transaction review. Another was real-time assessment before a transaction. The third focused on token monitoring for electronic payment instruments that had already been issued.
The FSA said the results showed that all three could function in real-world operations. It added that information sharing across exchanges could reveal industry-wide risk patterns that a single operator would not be able to detect on its own. By combining rule-based judgments with machine learning, the system could identify known sanctioned targets and also pick up newly emerging suspicious patterns.
The trial also found a clear limit. System alerts alone were not sufficient. Institutions still needed to trace fund flows and linked addresses before reaching a determination.
FSA says firms must verify alerts before restricting transactions
Based on the findings, the FSA issued a legal reminder. If an institution plans to restrict a transaction using shared information, it must verify the alert on its own first. It cannot act solely on information provided by another party.
The agency also called on businesses to build data governance protections, including checks on data accuracy, procedures for correcting errors, and channels for handling disputes.
FinTech PoC Hub has been in place since 2017
The FSA set up the hub in September 2017 to reduce hesitation among companies considering experimental financial innovation projects. The article said the program had previously supported a PIP payment project in which three major banks tested stablecoin compliance.