Global Financial Titans Visa and Mastercard said they are keeping an eye on regulatory compliance developments of Binance. More regulatory authorities initiate monitoring the major crypto exchange for conducting operations without authorization in their countries.
Despite the increasing regulatory investigation, Visa and Master have not cut off their ties with the major crypto exchange. Both payments titans have not crypto cardholders who can still utilize the services of Visa and Master cards to deposit funds into their Binance accounts.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Friday, Visa told that they are cognizant of the recent FCA statement about Binance. Visa noted that they’re carrying dialogue with Binance to monitor the developments. Recently, UK’s FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) released a warning for Binance, saying that Binance is not authorized to involve in regulated activities in the U.K.
Mastercard also told the Financial Times: “We continue to look over the situation, including how exchanges meet their regulatory essentials”. Binance also offers a Visa logo debit card to its customers which allows them to consume funds at retailers from their crypto wallets. In many European countries, the Binance card is issued by Contis. Contis is a company that provides payment services in Europe through an electronic money license issued by the Central bank of Lithuania.
After FCA issued a warning to Binance, many banks in the UK have ceased fund transfers to Binance. This includes Barclays and Santander. BCB Group and ‘Clear Junction’, who are payment service providers have also ended their business relations with Binance, as per sources. On the other hand, Binance has also stopped sterling withdrawals through Faster Payments and Euro deposits by SEPA bank transfers.
Changpeng Zhao, the Binance CEO, stated last week in an open letter that, “the company has grown very rapidly”. We haven’t got everything exactly right always”. He claimed that Binance has passed various external ‘anti-money laundering’ audits and promised to take further steps to improve their regulatory compliance. Other than the U.K, other countries have also issued warnings to Binance. They include Japan, Thailand, Cayman Islands, Lithuania, and Italy.
