It’s not the first time Binance has faced difficulty with UK regulators
Binance, the worlds largest crypto exchange, has announced that it will suspend deposits and withdrawals of GBP in May unless it can find a new local banking partner. Skrill Ltd, Binance’s UK Faster Payments Service transactions, ceased its operational relationship with the exchange amidst increasing regulatory pressure.
Binance announced the news via email on Wednesday.
It stated: “We regret to inform you that our GBP fiat partner, Skrill Limited, has informed us that it will stop offering GBP fiat services, namely deposits and withdrawals via Faster Payments and card, to Binance users.”
The suspension is expected to come into effect on May 22, 2024. The email stated that the exchange is “working hard” to find a new partner, but it’s unclear whether this will come to fruition. It has approximately nine weeks to find a new fiat partner.
The move doesn’t impact Binance Accounts or any other product available on Binance.com.
Binance stated: “Only the GBP deposit and withdrawal functions via Faster Payments and card are affected.”
Binance has had a rocky relationship with UK regulators.
Regulators have been clamping down hard on the crypto industry over the past few weeks, but Binance has struggled with UK regulators since 2020, when it first launched without restrictions.
In January 2021, the UK’s Finance Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that it would require crypto firms in the UK to register in order to comply with anti-money laundering rules. By June 2021, the authority ordered Binance to stop all regulated activity in the UK, advising consumers to “be wary” when dealing with crypto assets.
These restrictions led Binance to partner with Paysafe’s Skrill, a London-based regulated online payment service. With Skrill as its fiat partner, Binance could provide GPB and EUR deposits and withdrawal through SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) and Faster Payment Services (FPS).
While Brits enjoyed a year of easy GBP depoists/withdrawals, Paysafe said in a statement that the UK’s crypto regulatory environment simply has grown “too challenging” to offer the service at present, adding that they have acted with an “abundance of caution”.
