Binu Paul has been appointed as the new head of digital assets at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK’s main financial regulator.

news came first Announced after Paul posted on Linkedin that he had officially resigned from the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) in New Zealand, as a leading fintech specialist.

Paul replaces Victoria McLoughlin, who had been overseeing the digital assets in an acting capacity since April, according to a post she made via LinkedIn.

“I have had the good fortune to hold positions that have allowed me to positively impact New Zealand’s technology and financial services industries, both as an employee and as an entrepreneur. My accomplishments to date include founding SavvyKiwi for KiwiSavers, leading New Zealand’s top investment research firm through its successful exit, and uniting the fintech community with Finnotec,” says Paul.

While Paul has been receiving congratulatory messages through his Linkedin post, some of his connections say he will be greatly missed in the New Zealand fintech community.

“A huge loss for New Zealand but sounds like an amazing field of opportunity in an exciting space,” says one commentator.

Fight against money laundering activities

the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the UK financial regulator that oversees the actions of 59,000 financial institutions.

The FCA, which is independent from government, ensures that companies act ethically while encouraging competition and openness for the benefit of customers. The FCA continues to monitor the major risk factors in the financial markets and has a variety of supervisory and enforcement measures at its disposal to detect, deter and stop inappropriate behaviour.

As of 2020, the FCA assumed control of the UK anti money laundering and counter-terrorism financing agency.

Therefore, the regulator required companies involved in certain crypto-asset operations across the country to register with it. To this end, Revolut was registration offered to trading services in the UK, making there a total of 38 companies now on the list to operate crypto asset businesses in the nation.

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