May 5 (Cointime) - Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has responded to a recent Reuters report that questioned their compliance policies for preventing and tackling cryptocurrency-based financing of terrorism.

On May 4, Reuters reported that Israeli authorities have taken control of 190 Binance accounts associated with Islamic extremist organizations since 2021. According to the report, two of the accounts were connected to the Islamic State (ISIS), while nearly all of the remaining accounts were owned by three companies linked to Hamas.

Binance says "Reuters is deliberately leaving out critical facts to fit their narrative". The firm claims they are not aware of any exchange or financial institution that does more than Binance to keep bad actors off their platform.

"The bottom-line is that we are not aware of any exchange – or other financial institution for that matter – that does more today to keep bad actors off their platform than Binance." Binance said in the statement, "Our policies and processes comply with AMLD5/6 anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing requirements and we have a robust compliance program that incorporates sophisticated anti-money laundering and global sanctions principles and tools to detect and address suspicious activity. We even have specialists on our team who have focused their entire careers on counter-terrorism."

Regarding the specific cases mentioned in the Reuters report, the exchange stated that they have been working closely with international counter-terrorism authorities on these seizures, but "because of the nature of law enforcement cases", they must be very careful what they share.

The firm also clarified that bad actors don't register accounts under the names of their criminal enterprises, so their team collaborates with law enforcement and leverages information that is only available to them to identify individuals operating accounts for illicit organizations.