Andrew Griffith News

Andrew Griffith (pictured) is the economic secretary to the Treasury.

Senior executives at some of the UK's biggest banks risk losing their jobs if they de-bank customers because of their political views, the City minister has warned.

The United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry – HM Treasury – has strongly denied proposals by the House of Commons’ Treasury Committee to regulate cryptocurrencies like gambling.

The UK government has rejected the idea of regulating retail crypto trading as if it were gambling, a recommendation made by the influential Treasury Select Committee.

Banking licences are in the focus amid the brewing storm over the closure of Nigel Farage’s accounts by Coutts.

Relations are beginning to normalise between the Confederation of British Industry and the government, according to reports, as the scandal-hit lobby group's chief executive joined an event with the City minister earlier this week.

Nuggets, which has built technology for decentralised identity, worked with the BofE and the BIS on the recently completed Project Rosalind, which explored how a "universal and extensible API layer" could connect central bank and private sector infrastructures and enable retail CBDC payments.Now, the firm is being asked by the central bank to design a private and secure system that prevents the tracking and correlation of transactions, as well as stop fraud and money laundering.Earlier this week, financial services minister Andrew Griffith cited privacy as a reason to "proceed cautiously" with designs for the digital pound.While the BofE has said it will not make a final decision on introducing a Britcoin until at least 2025, deputy governor Jon Cunlifffe told a committee of MPs in February that a digital pound has a better than 50/50 chance of coming to fruition.Since then, the bank has begun recruiting as it looks to create a team of up to 30 people to oversee the project.

The City is in a fight for its survival. Deals are drying up. Listings are flying overseas. The sunny uplands of post-Brexit London look distant.

The United Kingdom on Thursday officially passed legislation to regulate cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as part of its broader financial regulatory reforms post-Brexit.

A bill bringing cryptocurrencies under the same rules applied to traditional assets is set to pass into law in the United Kingdom as it reaches the final stages for King Charles’ royal assent on June 29, the final step required for a parliamentary bill to become law.

The United Kingdom could lay out digital asset regulation within 12 months a British lawmaker claimed, saying the country wants to capitalize on the benefits that blockchain can bring to the private sector and economy.

Britain could introduce specific laws aimed at regulating the cryptocurrency industry in the next 12 months, a top lawmaker told CNBC.

However, economic secretary Andrew Griffith now says: “In consultation with HM Treasury, the Royal Mint is not proceeding with the launch of a non-fungible token at this time but will keep this proposal under review.”Labour's shadow City minister Tulip Siddiq responds. “I’m glad that the Royal Mint has finally made the Conservatives see sense, but we’ve been calling on the chancellor to drop this crypto gimmick for months.” The Treasury's initial announcement came as NFTs exploded in popularity, with many reaching multi-million dollar valuations.

Access to banking has gotten so limited in the UK over the past few weeks that crypto companies had to complain directly to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government.

However, economic secretary Andrew Griffith now says: “In consultation with HM Treasury, the Royal Mint is not proceeding with the launch of a non-fungible token at this time but will keep this proposal under review.”Labour's shadow City minister Tulip Siddiq responds. “I’m glad that the Royal Mint has finally made the Conservatives see sense, but we’ve been calling on the chancellor to drop this crypto gimmick for months.” The Treasury's initial announcement came as NFTs exploded in popularity, with many reaching multi-million dollar valuations.

Plans for a non-fungible token [NFT] venture, which was supposed to be backed by the government of the United Kingdom, have been dropped by the country’s Treasury. The venture was pitched by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in April 2022, when he served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

The United Kingdom has shelved plans to launch a government-backed “NFT for Britain,” which was initially proposed by crypto-friendly Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Britain's finance ministry plans "robust" regulations for cryptocurrency assets, following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX last year, which left millions of people nursing billions of dollars in losses.

The self-regulatory trade association CryptoUK has proposed providing a ‘white list’ of registered firms in the United Kingdom to address banks limiting or banning transactions to crypto companies.

The UK is racing ahead of the clock to salvage the British arm of the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank after it sent jitters through the startup scene of the country.

The UK Government in April pledged to introduce rules that would position the UK as a global hub for cryptoasset technology. Consultation proposals include strengthening rules for crypto trading platforms and a "robust world-first" regime for crypto lending by tightening the rules around financial intermediaries and custodians.