# APG

> APG (Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering): How the global standards actually reach Asia. Region: Asia-Pacific. Attribution required: A regulated firm must be able to attribute activity to an identified person, and assets or accounts that make that impossible are barred at the licensed perimeter. This is a rule about attribution, not about whether amounts are public.

Part of the Soda Labs Privacy Hub regulation map, which reads the instruments
themselves rather than summarising the summaries: https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation

## Key facts

- Entry type: Regulator or standard-setter
- Region: Asia-Pacific
- Subject: How the global standards actually reach Asia
- Authority: Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering
- Stance on on-chain confidentiality: Attribution required. A regulated firm must be able to attribute activity to an identified person, and assets or accounts that make that impossible are barred at the licensed perimeter. This is a rule about attribution, not about whether amounts are public.
- Tags: FATF-style regional body, mutual evaluation, 41 members, transmission mechanism
- Canonical page: https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/reg-apg

## What it actually says

Standards do not travel by themselves, and this is the machinery that moves them across Asia. The regional body assesses its 41 members against the FATF Recommendations, and it is those assessments, rather than any direct FATF instruction, that turn the travel rule and the virtual asset provider regime into domestic law across the region. Read the jurisdiction entries for Asia in this section and the common shape is visible: the same obligations, arriving at different speeds, in the order that evaluations fell. The fifth global round began in 2024, so the next set of national rules is being shaped through it now.

## The instruments that matter

- **The largest FATF-style regional body**: 41 member jurisdictions, the biggest of the regional groups both by membership and by the size of the region it covers
- **Mutual evaluation is the mechanism**: it assesses members against the FATF Recommendations and the 2022 methodology, which is how the travel rule becomes a domestic obligation across the region
- **The global fifth round began in 2024**: run jointly by FATF and the regional bodies, so the next wave of national crypto rules across Asia is being shaped through these assessments now

## Sources

- [APG mutual evaluations](https://www.apgml.org/mutual-evaluations/mutual-evaluations)
- [FATF on the APG](https://www.fatf-gafi.org/en/countries/global-network/asia-pacific-group-on-money-laundering--apg-.html)

## Related entries

- [MENAFATF](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/reg-menafatf): The same machinery, across the Gulf and North Africa
- [Japan FSA and JVCEA](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/reg-japan-fsa): A traceability test, applied by the industry body
- [Bangladesh](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-bangladesh): Barred through exchange control, not a crypto law
- [China](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-china): Crypto banned, and a state currency designed for anonymity
- [Hong Kong SFC](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/reg-hk-sfc): Retail exclusion achieved without naming anonymity
- [India](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-india): No crypto statute, regulated through AML and tax