British Financial Regulator Bans Binance Operations in UK
UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has instructed Binance Markets to cease operations in the UK, prohibiting it from offering any services to UK residents unless an official consent is given by the FCA.
The British Financial Regulator issued Binance Markets its second warning in three years; but has taken a corresponding action this time. The British regulator published a public notice on its site, announcing the ban of the cryptocurrency exchange, along with an ultimatum to communicate the ban to its UK customers.
“BINANCE MARKETS LIMITED IS NOT PERMITTED TO UNDERTAKE ANY REGULATED ACTIVITY IN THE UK,” the regulator headlined. “Due to the imposition of requirements by the FCA, Binance Markets Limited is not currently permitted to undertake any regulated activities without the prior written consent of the FCA.”
Binance has been instructed to display terms of its ban on every of its online media channels, starting from Wednesday, June the 30th.
The ban comes on the back of FCA’s refusal to approve the creation of Binance’s planned subsidiary, Binance UK. A successful establishment of Binance UK, like the existing Binance US, is supposed to help Binance’s British customers create new virtual bank accounts with the company, recognized by the Bank of England. However, plans for Binance UK have been put on hold. As FCA reels out new stipulations, it expects the crypto exchange to follow before operations can resume again.
Part of FCA’s stipulations require the crypto exchange to store all data and information of its British customers on servers located on UK soil. Binance is also expected to show evidence of adherence to these guidelines by July the 2nd, upon such demand.
U.K. Residents Can Still Trade
Despite repeated crackdown on the Malta-based exchange, British customers using the Binance platform can still trade and exchange on Binance.com or any of its apps. A spokesperson for Binance explained that this is because Binance Markets Limited, which is subject to UK’s ban, is independent of Binance.com.
“Binance Markets Limited (BML). BML is a separate legal entity and does not offer any products or services via the Binance.com website,” the spokesperson said.
However, while British Binance customers can keep on exchanging on Binance, they would not be able to trade Binance’s crypto derivatives, as those are regulated by the FCA.
You can buy or trade your preferred tokens for Binance’s BNB on ChangeNOW.
