FCA Spends $650K to Beef up its AML Control for the Crypto Industry

FCA spends $670,000 on training cryptocurrency exchange staff along with strengthening AML requirements to curb crypto-related crimes.

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is all set to tighten its grip around the cryptocurrency industry, having objectives of deterring fraudulent activities. The financial watchdog is looking for blockchain experts that are competent to train the crypto exchange staff to identify criminal activities utilizing digital currencies.

The FCA is spending over $671,000 to hire professionals from blockchain analytics institutions. It is aimed at educating the cryptocurrency agency’s employees on weeding out illegal financial activities, primarily terrorist financing and money laundering using digital currencies. 

This training staff initiative is a significant component of the watchdog’s efforts to enhance its monitoring control of the cryptocurrency industry in the UK. The reason behind these efforts is that 1.9 million locals have already invested in cryptocurrencies. In the past months, the regulatory obligation has ramped up, resulting in sanctioning crypto exchanges including Binance.

FCA is majorly focusing on increasing the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations to curb financial crimes. Recently, UK’s leading cryptocurrency agency Kraken delisted the privacy crypto token Monero due to compliance issues and its involvement in fraudulent activities. However, the exchange also received the operational license from the watchdog the same week.

On the other hand, the FCA has also banned the country’s exchanges operation from selling digital currencies along with sending notes that reference cryptocurrency exchanges, calling them “ill-suited” for their requirements. The agency is striving to gain more power to regulate the online promotion of digital currencies, which will assist in eliminating the skyrocketing crypto scams.

Notwithstanding this initiative and a red flag that the FCA has issued against the crimes and risky nature of digital currencies, crypto crimes have spiked over time. Earlier in July 2021, the law enforcement authorities had confiscated over $500 million in cryptocurrency-related criminal activities.

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