Information on emoney firms and cryptocurrency firms - September 2022

FOI Release Date of Release:

Reference Case Number: FOI9547

Freedom of Information: Right to know request:

Can you provide the following:

  1. The current number of live civil investigations into licensed e-money firms in relation to breaches of the UK Money Laundering Regulations.
  2. The current number of live dual-track criminal/civil investigations into licensed e-money firms in relation to breaches of the UK Money Laundering Regulations.
  3. The current number of live single track criminal investigations into licensed e-money firms in relation to breaches of the UK Money Laundering Regulations.
  4. The number of e-money providers which have been stripped of their license to operate by the FCA since January 2021.
  5. The current number of live investigations into unlicensed e-money firms.
  6. The current number of live investigations into unregistered cryptocurrency firms.
  7. The current number of live investigations into registered cryptocurrency firms in relation to breaches of the UK Money Laundering Regulations.
  8. The current number of live proceedings brought by the FCA under the Proceeds of Crime Act, and a breakdown of the types of firms subject to these proceedings (i.e. live cases against: 2 e-money firms, 1 building society, etc).

FCA response:

Questions 1,2,3 and 7

We currently have 38 open investigations into breaches of money laundering regulations and currently none of these relate to licensed e-money firms.

To note, direct investments in crypto assets are not a regulated activity.  For us to be able to take regulatory action, the firm would need to be engaging in activity that fell within the FCA’s remit.

The requirement to register with the FCA for businesses carrying out cryptoasset activities in the UK came into effect on 10 January 2020 under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017.  We publish a list of businesses that appear to be carrying out cryptoasset activities that are not registered with us for anti-money laundering purposes, and this can be found on our website.

Question 4

We do not ‘strip’ licences, if you mean how many e-money providers have had their licences cancelled through threshold condition actions since January 2021, then then we can confirm that the figure is nil.

Questions 5 and 6

We do not have any current investigations into unlicenced e-money firms or unregistered cryptocurrency firms.

Question 8

We have taken ‘proceedings’ to mean cases which are actually in some form of court process.  On these grounds we can confirm that there are no live court proceedings for Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) cases.