Prime minister Sunak led the country to the UK, and his dream to make the UK a Crypto Hub is breaking apart considering the main system is ignoring the whole concept of what the PM stated in the first place.
With the recent news, UK banks are not accepting any Crypto-associated users and companies to open their bank accounts with them, banks are also freezing the accounts of current users/companies, and those who have accounts already approved, are asking for more and more documentation.
In short, they do not want anyone to operate crypto-related accounts.
On the other hand, Gordon Duff said that European Union is also trying to make efforts which are in turn making various banks "receptive" to the technology but the UK is doing exactly the opposite to that.
It also contradicts Rishi Sunak's statement associated with Royal Mint NFT creation which is:
Chancellor @RishiSunak has asked @RoyalMintUK to create an NFT to be issued by the summer.
This decision shows the the forward-looking approach we are determined to take towards cryptoassets in the UK.
Crypto companies are facing difficulties accessing banking services in the United Kingdom, according to multiple sources interviewed by Bloomberg. The few banks still working with crypto firms are requesting more documentation and information about how they monitor clients’ transactions.
Challenges include having applications rejected, accounts frozen and overwhelming paperwork. Crypto companies have even complained to the government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, as the situation worsened in the past weeks. The move goes in the opposite direction of Sunak’s plans to prioritize financial technology disruption and make the U.K. a global crypto hub.
“The U.K. banking reaction has been more acute than the EU one,” Tom Duff-Gordon, vice president of international policy at Coinbase, told Bloomberg. According to Duff-Gordon, the European Union’s efforts to establish a framework for digital assets are making banks more receptive to crypto firms in other countries. The European parliamentary committee passed the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation in October, nearly two years after it was first introduced in September 2020. Its final vote is scheduled for this month.
So far in 2023, venture capital investment in digital asset companies reportedly dropped 94% to $55 million in the U.K., according to data from PitchBook, against a 31% increase in other countries in Europe. Crypto companies are turning to payment service providers such as BCB Payments and Stripe to maintain business operations in the U.K.
Earlier in March, the HSBC Holdings and Nationwide Building Society banned cryptocurrency purchases via credit cards for retail customers, joining a growing list of banks in the country to tighten restrictions on digital assets.
Also in March, the self-regulatory trade association CryptoUK proposed the creation of a “white list” of registered firms in the country to address banks limiting or banning transactions with crypto companies. “Many of the major U.K. banks have now put in place bans or restrictions, and we are concerned that other banks and Payment Services Providers (PSP’s) may also soon follow suit,” said CryptoUK. “We believe that government action is now warranted.”
Similar to the United States, authorities in the U.K. are tightening regulations on crypto companies. The Financial Conduct Authority proposed in February a set of rules that could subject executives of crypto firms to two years in prison if they don’t meet certain conditions related to promotion.
UK banks are turning away crypto clients: Report