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☆ Britain to push ahead with readying ground for a digital pound
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Getting the design of a digital pound right is a bigger priority than a rapid launch, Britain's Financial Services Minister Andrew Griffith said on Tuesday. China has pushed ahead with piloting a digital yuan and the European Central Bank is studying a digital euro, piling pressure on Britain to do the same and keep abreast of advances in financial technology. The finance ministry is due to launch in the coming weeks a public consultation on the attributes of a digital pound. A digital pound raised many public policy issues, he said. The first case use of a digital pound would probably be in the settlement of wholesale financial transactions, he added.

☆ Factbox: UK sets out financial sector reforms
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Britain on Friday set out plans to overhaul the financial sector including a review of rules to make bankers accountable for their decisions and easing capital requirements on smaller lenders. Here are some of the measures announced:- Reforming the Ring-FencingRegime for Banks- Issuing new remit letters for the PRA and FCA with clear, targeted recommendations on growth and international competitiveness- Reforming securitisation regulation- Launching a Call for Evidence on reforming the Short Selling Regulation- Welcoming the PRA consultation on removing rules for the capital deduction of certain non-performing exposures held by banks- Overhauling the UK’s regulation of prospectuses- Committing to establish the independent Investment Research Review- Committing to having a regime for a UK consolidated tape in place by 2024- Consulting on reform to the VAT treatment of fund management- Consulting in Q1 2023 on bringing Environmental, Social, and Governance ratings providers into the regulatory perimeter- Consulting on a UK retail central bank digital currency alongside the Bank of England in the coming weeks- Publishing a response to the consultation on expanding the Investment Manager Exemption to include cryptoassets- Laying regulations in early 2023 to remove well-designed performance fees from the pensions regulatory charge capReporting by William JamesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Global regulators to target crypto platforms after FTX crash
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The crash of FTX exchange has injected greater urgency into regulating the crypto sector and targeting such 'conglomerate' platforms will be the focus for 2023, the new chair of global securities watchdog IOSCO said in an interview. Jean-Paul Servais said regulating crypto platforms could draw on principles from other sectors which handle conflicts of interest, such as at credit rating agencies and compilers of market benchmarks, without having to start from scratch. Cryptoassets like bitcoin have been around for years but regulators have resisted jumping in to write new rules. "Is it the case for the crypto market? "For investor protection reasons, there is a need to provide additional clarity to these crypto markets markets through targeted guidance in applying IOSCO’s principles to crypto assets," Servais said.

☆ FTX shows need to regulate crypto before it gets big, says Bank of England
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Rae Wee | Tom Westbrook | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - The implosion of cryptocurrency exchange FTX shows the need to bring the crypto world within the regulatory framework, Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said on Monday. FTX, which has filed for U.S. bankruptcy court protection, has said it owes its 50 biggest creditors nearly $3.1 billion. He added that FTX's woes highlighted the need for regulators to put in place tighter controls as quickly as possible. "The FTX example underlines how important these aspects are," Cunliffe said. "Our aim is to ensure that innovation can take place but within a framework in which risks are properly managed," Cunliffe said.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried did financial system a favour
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Peter Thal Larsen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Sam Bankman-Fried has tipped the cryptocurrency industry into crisis. But the spectacular implosion of FTX, the exchange he founded, has done the broader financial system a big favour. Bankman-Fried, widely known as SBF, was eager for regulators in the United States and elsewhere to recognise crypto exchanges like FTX. In that sense, he’s done the financial system a favour. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has previously told Reuters some of the transfers out of FTX were a result of “confusing internal labelling”.

Officials at the crypto giant FTX have moved all digital assets offline as they investigate possible theft of crypto assets following their bankruptcy filing, their general counsel announced late Friday. That followed an earlier tweet from Miller that said officials were "investigating abnormalities with wallet movements related to consolidation of ftx balances across exchanges — unclear facts as other movements not clear." “FTX has been hacked,” an account administrator in the FTX Support Telegram channel wrote in a message, according to CoinDesk. The announcement followed the news that FTX and its affiliated companies have started the process of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with founder Sam Bankman-Fried stepping down as CEO. Founded in 2019, FTX had within two years grown to 1 million worldwide users, with an average of $10 billion in daily trading volume.

☆ FTX says investigating 'unauthorized transactions'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 12 (Reuters) - Collapsed crypto exchange FTX said on Saturday it had seen "unauthorized transactions", with analysts saying millions of dollars worth of assets had been withdrawn from the platform. FTX U.S. general counsel Ryne Miller said in a tweet shortly after 0700 GMT on Saturday that the firm had "expedited" the process of moving all digital assets to cold storage "to mitigate damage upon observing unauthorized transactions." loadingCold storage refers to crypto wallets that are not connected to the internet to guard against hackers. Earlier on Saturday, Miller said in a tweet that he was "investigating abnormalities with wallet movements related to consolidation of FTX balances across exchanges." "FTX has been hacked," an account administrator in the FTX Support Telegram channel wrote in a message, according to CoinDesk.

The firm's founder Sam Bankman-Fried had transferred $10 billion of customer funds to his trading company, Alameda Research, the sources said. Blockchain analytics firm Nansen said it saw $659 million in outflows from FTX International and FTX U.S. in the last 24 hours. In January, FTX had raised $400 million from investors at a $32 billion valuation. "Over four years, FTX raised $1.8 billion from venture capital and pension funds. In its bankruptcy petition, FTX Trading said it has $10 billion to $50 billion in assets, $10 billion to $50 billion in liabilities, and more than 100,000 creditors.

☆ Britain proposes regulation of all cryptoassets
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Britain would have the power to regulate all cryptoassets under a proposal the UK financial services minister has added to a draft law before parliament that will almost certainly pass. Andrew Griffith, re-appointed as City Minister on Thursday by Britain's new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, put forth the amendment to the financial services and markets bill, which parliament has begun approving. The bill, as originally drafted, gives the Financial Conduct Authority powers to regulate stablecoins only, but the amendment broadens the remit to cover promotions for all cryptoassets. "This new clause amends the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to clarify that the powers relating to financial promotion and regulated activities can be relied on to regulate cryptoassets and activities relating to cryptoassets," the amendment says in a parliamentary document dated Thursday. It would put Britain more on par with the European Union's markets in cryptoassets law which is now being finalised, seen as the world's first comprehensive set of rules to regulate the emerging crypto sector.

☆ Binance Hires Compliance Chief From Crypto Rival Kraken
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Mengqi Sun | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +2 min

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by spot-trading volume, has snatched up the former chief compliance officer from rival Kraken, as the industry continues to ramp up its compliance efforts. Steven Christie, who oversaw global compliance at Kraken for more than four years, joined Binance as its senior vice president of compliance in May, a Binance spokeswoman said Thursday. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | Risk and Compliance Journal Our Morning Risk Report features insights and news on governance, risk and compliance. San Francisco-based Kraken said Wednesday that it expects to hire a new chief compliance officer in the next few weeks. The demand for compliance and legal talent in the crypto industry has continued in recent months, despite tumbling crypto prices and layoffs, as the industry faces increased regulatory pressure.

☆ Markets body urges caution on shorter settlement in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Halving settlement time for stock trades in Europe to one business day would be "challenging" and needs full analysis by regulators before any decision is taken, a markets industry body said on Wednesday. "A move to T+1 would remove the only business day between trading and settlement, creating significant pressure on post-trade operations, particularly for global participants," the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) said in a discussion paper. Authorities in Britain and the European Union, mindful of keeping their capital markets globally competitive, have already held informal discussions with industry on T+1. "An important area for further discussion will be whether or not a synchronised implementation timeline is required across Europe more broadly," AFME said. U.S. settlement house DTCC is piloting T+0 settlement.

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