UK Regulators’ Attempt To Ban Crypto Ads Fails As More Than Half Remain Online: Report

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is reportedly failing in its attempt to ban crypto advertisements so far.

Half of all crypto advertisements are still up in the UK, and the FCA has yet to penalize any of the companies, the Financial Times reports.

Citing data from a freedom of information request, FT says that only 54% of the 1,702 alerts issued by the FCA ended in the illegal advertisements, apps and websites being taken down.

Charles Randell, former chair of the regulator, told FT that the FCA would need to start penalizing companies that were ignoring the ban in order to end the “very frustrating” level of non-compliance.

“Ultimately, unless a very real and present threat of legal action is visible to both the [tech] platforms and to authorized crypto asset exchanges which issue non-compliant ads, we’re unlikely to see any change.”

Randell says part of the difficulty for regulators is the inability to demand that tech and social media platforms ban unapproved content, instead relying on good-faith negotiations.

“When the platforms are sufficiently motivated to block these ads they can and will… The regulators — including both the FCA, Ofcom and if necessary the criminal prosecution authorities — may need to ensure that the platforms have that motivation.”

The FCA says that it’s now making “good progress” with tech companies in regulating the banned advertisements, but is still “concerned about the prevalence of frauds and scams online”.

“Many social media sites have now banned paid-for adverts for UK financial services from non-FCA authorized firms, and we continue to [take] action against those we find breaching our rules.”

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