UK’s FCA Looks for Lead of Crypto Team

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the U.K.’s financial watchdog, is looking to hire a head of its digital assets department, according to a LinkedIn job posting Monday (March 14), CoinDesk reported Tuesday (March 15).

The digital assets department head will take charge of FCA’s regulatory activities on cryptocurrency firms that may be involved in “scams and frauds,” according to the job description, and build the team and crypto policy, support innovation in the sector and align the FCA with government policies and directions.

The person hired for the job will “lead a cross-sector crypto strategy to have a single FCA narrative on crypto,” according to the LinkedIn post, and collaborate with international regulators as part of his or her duties. The deadline for applications is April 3.

Last week, FCA announced it is looking for a director of payments and digital assets, adding that person will also supervise policy, according to the report. The deadline to apply for that position is March 27.

The FCA has been cracking down all cryptocurrency ATMs in the U.K., saying they were illegal because none of the operators were approved to offer ATM services.

Related: UK Watchdog Orders Crypto ATM Agents to Pull Plugs

“​​We are concerned about crypto ATM machines operating in the U.K. and will therefore be contacting the operators instructing that the machines be shut down or face further action,” the FCA said in the statement.

There are 76 crypto ATMs in the U.K., according to Coin ATM Radar. None of the cryptocurrency firms with full FCA approval were approved to offer ATM services.

The FCA published a list of unregistered crypto firms that may have been continuing to operate ATMs, but the watchdog said that a recent assessment discovered that 110 of those terminals are not operating.

Of the 106 firms applying for FCA registration as of March 7, 27 were fully registered, 56 withdrew their applications and 23 were classified under the FCA’s Temporary Registration Regime (TRR). TRR firms can keep operating while their applications are under assessment until the approval deadline of March 31, Coinbase reported.