The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says it has too few powers to stop Binance from accessing a key UK payments network, despite the deep concerns it has about the cryptocurrency exchange.
The announcement came after Binance posted an ad on its website telling UK consumers they can deposit pounds sterling via Faster Payments, a UK payments and bank account transfer network.
In June 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) blocked the company from conducting any regulated activity in the UK and issued a warning to consumers about the platform. In a notice, the FCA said Binance Markets Ltd, Binance’s only regulated UK entity, “must not, without the prior written consent of the FCA, carry out any regulated activities… with immediate effect.”
Now, the FCA is saying it lacks the tools to stop Binance from accessing the UK market via Faster Payments.
Binance was founded by Chinese software developer Changpeng Zhao in 2017, but moved out of China under increasing regulatory pressure, initially to Japan but now is legally registered in the Cayman Islands.
- Reuters, with additional editing by Neal McGrath
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