The person to assume control of the UK’s financial regulatory body (the FCA), Ashley Alder, possesses an unruly attitude toward cryptocurrencies based on his antecedents.
While speaking to Treasury members recently, Alder stated that firms offering crypto-related services are deliberately evasive. He further claimed that these sectors promote money laundering schemes.
In a recent interview, Alder, who oversees activities in Hong Kong’s financial watchdog, discussed his beliefs regarding cryptocurrencies. He stated that it exacerbates risk and requires laws from regulatory bodies.
According to him, the FCA has extensive experience with crypto platforms, pointing out that the collapse of FTX contributed to the current downturn in the crypto market. Alder further said that data shows that large sums of money are laundered this way.
Alders Complaint On Cryptocurrencies
In Alder’s view, crypto firms enable various activities, which leads unsuspecting investors to take huge uncalculated risks. The aspiring FCA chair also believes crypto firms aren’t complying with the regulator’s policies, especially its anti-money laundering (AML) guidelines.
In an interview earlier this year, the FCA CEO, Nikhil Rathi, revealed that its oversight imposes severe restrictions on registering cryptocurrency exchanges that are non-compliant with its AML. Currently, only 41 crypto firms have proper FCA registration, which makes them operate legally.
The UK is proposing a modification of its rules for crypto companies. One of the additions to the law is a restriction on the number of crypto-based products that foreign companies can sell.
This move is a result of the collapse of the world’s third-largest crypto exchange, FTX, last month. The upcoming regulatory changes will further empower the FCA better to perform its oversight functions over the crypto industry.
There have been several fallouts following FTX’s collapse. Apart from the hastening of approval of crypto regulatory policies, there has also been increased interest in the transparency of the operations of crypto exchanges.
For instance, there were recent allegations against the popular crypto exchange, Binance, over money laundering activities.