California-based digital currency exchange Coinbase has received its e-money license from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and has become the first cryptocurrency exchange to enter the Faster Payments Scheme in the UK market.
The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US is now looking to ramp up its British operations with their new e-money license, which allows the exchange to issue e-money or cryptocurrency and provide payment services in the UK and all 23 European Union countries. Customers trading on the exchange will also be pleased as the license is further proof that Coinbase has passed anti-money laundering and security checks that safeguards clients’ funds.
Coinbase has put in place measures to ensure that it will not suffer like other exchanges who were unable to cash out their customers’ money by segregating customer fiat balances from Coinbase’s own operational funds.
Coinbase Links Up With Barclays Plc.
This is why Coinbase has opened a bank account with Barclays Plc. to make sure that funds are kept separately and to ease deposits and withdrawals for clients. According to Zeeshan Feroz, Coinbase's UK chief executive, the company has a ‘full banking relationship’ with Barclays. The fact that Barclays has tied up with Coinbase comes as a surprise since many financial institutions in the UK and US have recently announced they will no longer support cryptocurrency transactions.
In a statement, Zeeshan Feroz, UK chief executive of Coinbase, said
The license requires Coinbase’s e-money operations to meet the strict rules enforced by the FCA and the Payment Services Directive…This will ultimately help us deliver a better experience through new partnerships and an easier to use product. We believe that this is an important step toward our commitment to making cryptocurrency accessible to everyone
As the first exchange to support the UK’s Faster Payments Scheme, Coinbase will introduce in the coming weeks an option for their customers to send and receive fiat money from the exchange. This puts Coinbase’s operations on the network used by the traditional financial market, further legitimizing the strength of cryptocurrency industry in the market.
It’s been just a year and a half since Coinbase opened its European headquarters in London. The company has had massive success in the UK and has recorded exponential growth in the market. To keep up with the demand, the exchange is hiring more customer support workers and engineers to improve its operations, especially after the launch of Coinbase Commerce which happened last month.
