Two crypto companies, Coinbase and Revolut, suffered contrasting fortunes successful the hands of the UK authorities during the past week.
Coinbase fined
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined CB Payments Limited (CBPL), a subsidiary of Coinbase Group, £3.5 cardinal ($4.5 million) for breaches related to Anti-Money Laundering.
In a July 23 notice, the FCA explained that the good resulted from CBPL’s repeated violations of its guidelines. Initially, the good was £5 million, but owed to a colony discount, it was reduced by 30% to £3.5 million.
In October 2020, the CBPL agreed to fortify its fiscal transgression power policies pursuing a regulatory visit. This statement included a committedness to not judge caller high-risk customers without adhering to FCA guidance.
However, the FCA recovered that CBPL continued to onboard and service 13,416 high-risk customers. Approximately 31% of these customers deposited astir $24.9 cardinal connected the platform, which was past utilized connected different Coinbase platforms for crypto transactions totaling $226 million.
Consequently, the FCA determined that CBPL failed to comply with the recommended controls. The regulator stated:
“The failings importantly accrued the hazard that fiscal transgression mightiness beryllium facilitated by the Firm astatine a clip erstwhile the Authority had informed CBPL that its systems and controls were not afloat effectual and required remediation.”
Revolut licensed
On July 25, Revolut announced it received a restricted banking licence from the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), which oversees the banking sector.
The licence comes much than 3 years aft Revolut archetypal applied successful 2021 and initially places the steadfast successful the mobilization stage. Francesca Carlesi, UK CEO of Revolut, said:
“It is simply a tremendous work to beryllium a slope successful the UK and we volition enactment relentlessly to connection products and services that amended the fiscal lives of everyone who uses Revolut.”
Revolut is simply a challenger slope that has made important strides successful the crypto industry. In May, the steadfast launched Revolut X, a standalone crypto speech designed for retail customers.
Notably, the institution precocious published its fiscal accounts for past year, showing that its revenues surpassed $2 cardinal and recorded profits earlier taxation of $545 million.
The station UK regulators good Coinbase $4.5 million, assistance Revolut banking license appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.