Despite its concerns about Binance, the UK’s financial watchdog ruled on Wednesday that it had too few tools to prevent the cryptocurrency exchange from joining a major UK payments network.
Users could deposit sterling using Faster Payments, a network that controls payments and bank account transfers in the United Kingdom, according to Binance’s website on Tuesday.
The move is expected to increase the number of customers for the world’s largest bitcoin exchange in the United Kingdom. Binance has partnered with Paysafe to gain access to Faster Payments, according to a spokeswoman.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warned last year that Binance posed a significant risk to consumers, ordering it to cease regulated activities.
“Our concerns about Binance remain,” an FCA spokesperson said. “We received a notification of this business partnership but have limited powers to object to arrangements of this kind.”
“Paysafe is aware of our concerns and is subject to close ongoing supervision consistent with our approach for firms of its size.”
Later this year, Britain’s finance ministry will lay out how the highly unregulated crypto business should be regulated.
Binance said it takes a “constructive and collaborative approach” to interactions with authorities, in response to questioning about the FCA’s concerns, which were first reported by the Financial Times.
“Binance’s commitment to grow as an evolving and maturing firm” impressed Paysafe, according to the company. It claimed it took its regulatory responsibilities “very seriously” and had “done full due diligence on Binance to ensure that they, too, adhere to these high requirements, as we do with all merchant partners.”
