New FCA Chairman Calls For New Crypto Regulation

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The UK’s recently appointed chair Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) presented a hostile attitude towards cryptocurrencies at a cross-party Treasury select committee meeting.

Ashley Alder, who will take control of the FCA in February, told Treasury members on Dec. 14 that cryptocurrency-related businesses were “deliberately evasive” and suggested the industry was facilitating money laundering.

According to a Financial Times report, the current chief executive of Hong Kong’s Securities & Futures Commission emphasized his belief that the cryptocurrency ecosystem creates risk that requires additional government regulation:

Our experience to date of [crypto] platforms, be it FTX or others, is that they are deliberately evasive, they are a method by which money laundering occurs in size.

Alder also added that the cryptocurrency industry brings together “a whole set of activities that are normally separated, which leads to extremely untoward risks.”

The incoming comments from the FCA chairmen are apparently at odds with regulators’ efforts to provide a supportive environment for the UK cryptocurrency industry.

The institution told Cointelegraph earlier this year that its oversight is largely limited to registering local cryptocurrency exchanges for anti-money laundering (AML) purposes. There are 41 exchanges currently listed on the FCA’s list of registered crypto assets.

The UK Treasury is now looking to formulate new regulatory rules for the cryptocurrency industry, which could include limits on how much foreign companies can sell in the country. This was largely due to the collapse of FTX in November.

The FCA is also expected to be tasked with overseeing the operations and advertising of cryptocurrency firms under the proposed regulatory changes.

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