The Financial Market Authority, which oversees the cryptocurrency and wider financial services industry, flagged four crypto firms as unlicensed operators. The firms are PremiumBorsa, Pennyworth Investments, GCG 24, and ANB Bank. Both PremiumBorsa and Pennyworth provide crypto trading services, and GCG 24 is involved in forex. ANB Bank is a loan company offering a range of products to suit individual and business credit needs in Austria.
Financial regulators warn customers not to engage with these firms.
The above mentioned four firms have joined the regulator’s ever-growing list of blacklisted cryptocurrency firms, companies the FMA officially warns others in the sector to avoid. It comes at a time of increasing pressure from regulators worldwide on their digital currency sectors, in a bid to regulate the market better. The Financial Market Authority noted that none of the four cryptocurrency firms currently holds an appropriate license to operate in the country. Financial regulators all over the world are working to regulate the crypto industry. The new additions of four crypto firms follow three firms that were added to the blacklist earlier this month, with the regulators committing to “remain vigilant” to other suspicious operators in the region.
Regulators continue to enforce FATF guidelines.
Financial regulators across countries are enforcing the guidelines proposed by the Financial Action Task Force. Several countries have already implemented the crypto regulations based on those guidelines, including South Korea and Sweden. Earlier, the European Union enforced Anti-Money Laundering 5th Directive, which requires crypto firms to share customers’ details with the government to monitor money laundering and terror financing. The guidelines proposed by the FATF were criticized by many in the crypto community as it invades users’ privacy.
