UK Regulators Declare Start of ‘Beautiful Friendship’ With Bitcoin, Ethereum Christopher Woolard, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Director of Strategy and Competition, announced a regulatory sandbox for fintech companies, a first of its kind. Harriett Baldwin,
Economic Secretary to the Treasury, described Bitcoin and Ethereum as “digital currencies” and proclaimed the start of a “beautiful friendship”.
Both have been speakers at Innovate Finance Global Summit in London . As Christopher Woolard said in a groundbreaking speech, the aim of the sandbox is to “test out their innovative ideas without immediately incurring all the normal regulatory consequences .” FCA may waive rules
Companies and start-ups that participate in the sandbox will be issued individual guidance on how FCA will interpret the rules under the understanding that if the guidance is followed they are in full compliance. The FCA may further waive or modify the rules or, in rare cases, may issue a “no enforcement action”, in effect throwing out FCA’s rulebook during the sandbox stage. Normal laws in regards to civil and criminal liability, of course, still apply. In explaining, Woolard stated: “These letters aim to give firms comfort that as long as they deal with us openly, keep to the agreed testing parameters and treat customers fairly, we accept that unexpected issues may arise and will not take disciplinary action.” Similar to accelerators
Signalling a highly innovative and open approach, Woolard stated that the sandbox will run “not dissimilar to how accelerators operate”, with two cohorts a year. Moreover, the FCA intends to go further, announcing an “industry working group to explore options for industry led sandboxes.”
In a further speech at the same summit, Harriett Baldwin, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, indicated UK’s openness and welcoming of fintech innovation not only by announcing new measures, but also by the words she chose. […]
