The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the U.K. is not influenced by the size of crypto companies when granting regulatory approval, according to its CEO Nikhil Rathi. During a Treasury Select Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rathi said, We went through a very tough period with the industry over the last 18 months or two years because we turned down applications from some of the largest crypto firms in the world. The FCA has received over 300 applications from crypto firms since opening its register two years ago, but only 42 firms have been able to register with the regulator.
Rathi warned against regulators considering the size of the firm and market share when assessing applications for registration. He stated, There are some people that will try and suggest we should have a metric for market share and I just encourage everybody to think really hard about whether you really want a regulator to be talking about metric because that would give a bias towards larger companies. Instead, he urged regulators to make robust decisions when authorizing firms.
The U.K. is expected to soon introduce a new authorization regime for crypto firms, which would require all companies wishing to operate in the country to apply for a FCA license – including overseas firms reaching out to local customers. The FCA was given more powers to regulate the crypto industry and ensure consumer protection when the country’s new markets bill passed into law in June.