FCA restricts Binance partner from approving crypto ads

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority has been cracking down on firms for not registering with the regulator. Now it’s taking aim at one of Binance’s partners.

To be clear: Rebuilding Society is a registered and regulated entity with the FCA, but the UK watchdog issued an OIREQ, which is an enforcement power granted to the FCA.  

The FCA’s register showed an OIREQ warning on Oct. 10 saying that Rebuilding Society “must not approve the content of any financial promotion for a Qualifying crypto asset for communication by an unauthorized person.”

Additionally, the firm has a Wednesday deadline to both “withdraw any existing approvals” and notify clients that it has “engaged or been engaged by to approve” crypto financial promotions. It will also need to inform the FCA that it has taken the steps to comply with the regulator’s requirements. 

Rebuildingsociety.com Limited and Binance announced their partnership on October 8. 

Binance also launched its own domain, initially planning to collaborate with Rebuilding Society on its marketing and communication materials to ensure compliance prior to the FCA’s warning.

Read more: FCA issues ‘final warning’ to crypto firms ahead of Oct. 3 marketing regulation rollout

“Rebuildingsociety.com is an FCA-regulated firm which is authorized to approve crypto marketing and communications materials as an ‘S21 approver,” Binance wrote in its post announcing the partnership.

In an emailed statement to Blockworks, Binance said, “Binance has invested an enormous amount of time and resources in ensuring that www.Binance.com/en-GB is positioned to comply with the detailed requirements of the UK’s Financial Promotions Regime. We have implemented all necessary restrictions for UK users and partnered with an FCA authorized firm, Rebuildingsociety.com Limited, in order to meet our obligations.”

Binance added that it shared its agreement with Rebuildingsociety.com with the FCA back on Oct. 2. 

In addition to the deadlines imposed on Rebuilding Society, the FCA targeted 146 unregistered crypto companies in a warning aimed at curbing illegal crypto financial promotions targeted at UK customers. 

“That Binance is not among these firms is testament to the processes and procedures it has implemented to comply with requirements,” Binance told Blockworks.
Both Coinbase and OKX, which also plan to be active in the UK market under the new regulations, partnered with Archax.

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