Reported by: Ian Taylor

In 2018, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) wrote to the heads of the country’s biggest high street banks to emphasize the importance of due diligence when dealing with crypto businesses. That seems to have led to widespread high-risk ratings and bans on crypto-related banking, impacting both crypto businesses hoping to operate in the U.K. and investors alike.

Banks are, understandably and responsibly, concerned with scams, but the current situation creates uncertainty. Crypto investors need to be able to move their money around as they like, and crypto businesses need access to payment rails for a variety of other reasons, such as paying staff and suppliers.

By barring crypto businesses from accessing “mainstream” banking, organizations are forced to use payment service providers (PSPs), which are rated higher risk by banks because they’re also used by the gambling industry. There’s a lack of nuance in this process, with banks tending to blanket block transactions through PSPs.

Although crypto businesses struggle to open bank accounts and investors have their freedoms curtailed, there issignificant interest in crypto from nearly every high street bank. But that’s just on one side of the bank. They’re looking at whether crypto will work from an institutional investment standpoint, but that willingness and knowledge don’t make it across the building to the people doing transactional banking — retail and corporate.

Read full report: https://cointelegraph.com/news/the-uk-s-retail-banks-hate-crypto-and-lawmakers-should-act/amp