At a meeting in London earlier this month, the finance ministers from the G7 — the United States, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Canada — unanimously agreed to begin creating the framework for a global corporate tax rate. The framework laid out a “two pillar” principle. The first pillar ensures that companies that make a 10% profit margin would be subject to the tax rate. The second pillar ensures that countries will charge a 15% minimum tax rate. Under all of this, the new rules will focus on where the profit was made and not where the company is …

There has been much commotion about stablecoins among central bankers, regulators and lawmakers in recent years, most notably in the furor surrounding Facebook’s repeated attempts to launch variously designed stablecoins that would be native to its multiple social media platforms. Not everyone in the financial world is that perturbed though. A new speech for the Westminster eForum Policy Conference by Christina Segal-Knowles, executive director of the Bank of England's Financial Market Infrastructure Directorate, is titled “What’s Old is New Again” and aims to tone down some of the excitement and agitation surrounding the issue. Restricting her focus to stablecoins that …

Switzerland-based 21Shares, formerly known as Amun, has said it will make its Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded product available to traders in the United Kingdom through the Aquis Exchange. According to an announcement from 21Shares, its Bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) will be available to professional investors on the Aquis Exchange this summer. U.K.-based firm GHCO will be acting as the crypto ETP’s liquidity provider, with 21Shares saying the product would be “engineered like an [exchange-traded fund].” “ETPs trade on exchanges in a similar manner to a listed stock and institutional investors in the U.K. will get exposure to Bitcoin via a regulated …

The Bank of England is continuing to devote significant resources to researching digital money in both private and public forms. With an eye on both the domestic and international context, the central bank’s latest discussion paper, published June 7, outlines the role and possible developments of both in the ongoing evolution of money. Commenting on the paper’s publication, BoE governor Andrew Bailey said that “the prospect of stablecoins as a means of payment and the emerging propositions of CBDC have generated a host of issues that central banks, governments, and society as a whole, need to carefully consider and address. …

Strict Anti-Money Laundering laws in the United Kingdom appear to be constituting a major operational hurdle for crypto firms in the country. According to the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), several crypto businesses in the country might be preparing for an exit. In a release issued on Thursday, the regulatory agency revealed: “A significantly high number of businesses are not meeting the required standards under the Money Laundering Regulations. This has resulted in an unprecedented number of businesses withdrawing their applications.” According to a report by The Guardian, 51 companies have so far failed to meet the FCA’s AML standards …

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has extended the end date of crypto-asset companies’ temporary registration from July 2021 to March 2022. The Temporary Registrations Regime, or TRR, was established last year to enable crypto businesses to continue trading while their registrations were still being assessed by the FCA. With the latest announcement, any crypto companies that applied before Dec. 16, 2020 have temporary registration until March 31, 2022. After becoming the supervisor of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing measures for crypto companies in the United Kingdom, the FCA obliged all crypto-asset businesses to comply with the country’s AML …

Cryptocurrency investment manager ETC Group is expanding its Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded product (ETP) offering in the United Kingdom after harnessing Swiss market rules to bypass more stringent British regulations. The ETC Group Physical Bitcoin ETP, which trades under the ticker symbol BTCE, will begin trading on Aquis Exchange in London and Paris on June 7, the company announced Tuesday. Once launched, BTCE will become the first cryptocurrency ETP to trade in the United Kingdom. Bradley Duke, CEO of ETC Group, said the product is already being used by investors as an “effective hedge against inflation.” He explained: “ETC Group provides …

Starling, a United Kingdom-based online bank, is preparing to resume payments to cryptocurrency exchanges after suspending crypto exchange deposits last week. A spokesperson for Starling told Cointelegraph on Tuesday that the bank is set to restart payments to crypto exchanges on June 23 after temporarily suspending the feature as a measure to protect its customers. Starling blocked payments to some cryptocurrency exchanges last week, citing “high levels of suspected financial crime with payments to some cryptocurrency exchanges.” The bank said that it will reverse the measure after adopting “additional checks specifically for payments to crypto exchanges.” The spokesperson stressed that …

Cryptocurrency businesses in the United Kingdom have been struggling to meet Anti-Money Laundering standards set by the Financial Conduct Authority, according to a senior official. John Glen, a member of U.K. Parliament and the economic secretary to the Treasury, pointed out major difficulties in the process of registering crypto firms under the FCA’s AML regulations in official comments on Friday. According to the official, only five crypto businesses have received registration from the FCA as of May 24 after the authority became the official AML supervisor of the crypto industry in the U.K. in January 2020. “Of the firms assessed …

The U.K bank with the worst record for dealing with scam complaints has issued a cryptocurrency scam alert. NatWest, which was rated as the worst U.K bank for accurately discerning legitimate fraud complaints in 2020, sent the warning to users of its mobile banking app after it reportedly received a record number of scam reports between January and March 2021. The warning made particular note of one type of scam which involves hackers installing remote access software on a victim’s computer or hardware. The trick usually sees criminals winning a victim’s trust online, either by posing as an experienced trader, …

A major advertising industry organization in the United Kingdom has ruled on an ad campaign telling people “it’s time to buy” Bitcoin (BTC). The Advertising Standards Authority, a self-regulating ad organization, officially halted an advertising campaign by cryptocurrency exchange Luno for being misleading and irresponsible. “The ads must not appear again in the form complained about,” the ASA said Wednesday, noting that ads like this should mention that Bitcoin investment is highly risky due to its extremely volatile nature. Shown across the London Underground network and on London buses this year, Luno’s ad posters contained an image of Bitcoin saying: …

Cryptocurrency adoption on a United Kingdom-based payment app is booming in the first quarter of 2021, but whether that trend continues could depend on the actions of Bitcoin (BTC) evangelists like Elon Musk, warns STICPAY director James Bay. The mobile payments app reported a 48% increase in crypto deposits in the first quarter of the year, while fiat deposits remained static. Bitcoin is apparently the currency of choice for most of STICPAY’s e-wallet users, with Bitcoin deposits eclipsing deposits of Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT) and Litecoin (LTC) 38 times over. The firm also reported a 185% increase in the number …