Nick Andrew’s experience spans project finance, credit risk, capital markets, legal risk and compliance. He then ran a compliance regulatory consulting firm dealing with a lot of institutional clients and set up a crypto proprietary trading company.
Pawel chats with Nick who says that the UK has the regulatory experience, people and support mechanisms for financial services but it is an expensive and long process. It is also easier to set up a crypto business in other jurisdictions like Switzerland.
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has also been affected by the pandemic and their ability to not risk failure which results in taking a more brutal approach. A big problem in this country is that there is an expectation of compensation from the FCA if something goes wrong if the firm is regulated by the FCA, even if they are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
A tip for compliance is draw the responsibility map for a company so you know where the gaps are. However, the firm has to do it upfront, otherwise it falls by the wayside.
