UK Crypto ‘Whitelist’ Needed to Solve Debanking, Lobby Group Says

U.K. banks should be given a “whitelist” of registered crypto firms to avoid the sector being cut off from the financial system, lobby group CryptoUK has said in letters sent to regulators Tuesday.

Concerns over legitimate crypto companies getting debanked have spread to the U.K., where major lenders say they discourage access to riskier financial products for their customers’ own good.

“We are calling upon the Government to find a path forward,” CryptoUK’s Director of Operations Su Carpenter told financial services minister Andrew Griffith in a Mar. 21 letter. "Blanket bans and restrictions of transfers from UK banks to crypto asset platforms… will have the effect of fundamentally undermining the Government’s ambition to become a crypto asset hub," Carpenter added.

A parallel letter calls for action from two other regulatory agencies – the Financial Conduct Authority and Payment Systems Regulator.

In the U.S., January guidance from regulators and the collapse of crypto-friendly banks such as Signature and Silvergate have led to lawmaker concern that the industry is being punished via the financial system, as previously occurred for the firearms sector via Operation Chokepoint.

Read more: UK Banks Blocking Crypto Access Given Fraud, Volatility, Lawmakers Told