The government of Japan is looking to develop an international network for cryptocurrency payments akin to the SWIFT network, reported Reuters.

According to the report, plans are on to build the network in the next few years.

The plans were said to have been proposed by Japan’s Ministry of Finance and the Financial Services Agency (FSA).

Neither FSA nor the ministry commented on the issue.

The network’s development will be supervised by a team from the Financial Action Task Force, which has already given the go-ahead to the plan.

Japan will reportedly work alongside other countries on the initiative.

Details related to the functioning of the network were not revealed.

However, it is said that the aim is to combat money laundering effectively.

Japan has been open to cryptocurrencies, unlike other countries like India who has shunned virtual currencies on security grounds.

Two years ago, Japan legalised Bitcoin exchanges.

However, the country’s cryptocurrency exchanges have not been immune to hacks.

A week ago, one such exchange Bitpoint lost $32m in a hack.

Of the total amount stolen, $23m were customer funds while the rest were owned by the exchange itself.

Last year, hackers stole $60m from another Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Zaif.

Around $19.6m of the stolen funds belonged to the exchange, while the remainder was client money.