Former British Chancellor Philip Hammond has cautioned investors that European Union competitors were outpacing the United Kingdom in digital financial assets.
Hammond commented as he stepped into his role as chairman of cryptocurrency enterprise Copper.
The news comes as the fintech company aims to close a fresh round of funding, raising the company’s total value to roughly $2 billion USD.
Hammond continued: “The UK needs to be leading in this area post-Brexit. It’s allowed itself to slip behind. Switzerland is further ahead. The EU is also moving faster. There has to be appetite to take some measured risk.”
He also urged Westminster to expedite regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrencies and digital assets as other nations had already kicked off such processes.
The Copper Key to Britain’s Fintech Bid
Copper, a digital asset firm for institutional crypto acquisition, trading, and storage. It registered in Switzerland after being forced to withdraw its application from the UK.
Hammond blamed the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for its slow response, which may have triggered a loss of customers after its temporary registration expired in March last year.
Hammond said he hoped that “UK authorisation will be forthcoming in the future”.
“We are very much hoping to migrate back to London. Post-Brexit, the UK needs a strong financial services sector. We need to work out how to become the location of choice for trading in new asset classes.”
Adding, Copper chief executive Dmitry Tokarev said that Hammond’s public advocacy for “connecting traditional finance with distributed ledger technology comes at a time when it is needed more than ever.
The news comes as the UK aims to reposition itself as a major crypto and fintech hub for global markets. Currently, HM Treasury has posted job applications for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) team to build a sovereign digital currency.
The LinkedIn advert called for a head of digital currency to lead a team of roughly 20 people, leading to the creation of a digital pound. The initiative aims to create the CBDC as an alternative to paper and banking payment systems.
