Crypto▼ Bearish
UK Lawmakers Demand Banks Explain Crypto Service Restrictions
Two senior UK lawmakers sent letters to major bank CEOs on August 11 demanding explanations for crypto service restrictions. The APPG inquiry covers exchanges, custodians, and payment firms facing banking access problems. Evidence closes August 31.
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Two senior UK lawmakers sent letters to the chief executives of major banks and financial service providers on August 11, demanding answers about why crypto firms keep getting shut out of basic banking services.
The letter came from Gurinder Singh Josan MP and Lord Vaizey of Didcot, who co-lead the Crypto and Digital Assets All-Party Parliamentary Group, the APPG. It asked for clarity on current bank policies toward crypto companies and whether those policies would change once a new regulatory framework lands.
The APPG has been hearing the same complaints repeatedly. Crypto businesses across the UK – exchanges, custodians, payment firms, wallet providers, tokenization outfits, stablecoin issuers – say they can’t open bank accounts, or they open them and then hit payment caps and transaction restrictions that make normal operations basically impossible. The group launched its formal inquiry on July 21, and it covers the full scope of the problem: how widespread it is, what it’s doing to investment flows into the sector, and whether the government or regulators need to step in harder. Written evidence is being collected until August 31.
The APPG isn’t just asking banks to explain themselves. It’s also asking them to identify the specific regulatory, legal, compliance, and risk factors that shape how they treat crypto firms – and to suggest what policy changes might actually fix the problem. That’s a broader mandate than a typical parliamentary letter. Banks are being asked to do some of the policy thinking themselves.
The group’s core argument is straightforward: if the UK is building a new regulatory regime meant to legitimize and grow the digital asset sector, then authorized firms operating under that regime shouldn’t face blanket banking bans. Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby had already said as much – FCA-authorized crypto firms, per her earlier statement, shouldn’t face banking restrictions just because of the sector they’re in. The APPG is essentially asking banks why that’s still happening anyway.