It appears that the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the governmental body responsible for regulating the country’s financial markets, is taking steps to further its involvement in the cryptocurrency industry. It’s looking to hire cryptocurrency specialists to join a couple of its divisions.

A couple of days ago, the UK published its Economic Crime Plan for 2019-2020 in which it stated it would be taking action on crypto-assets to ensure they are not used for money laundering or other illegal activity.

It seems the government is very serious about this, as the FCA recently posted job openings for a Cryptoasset Specialist Supervisor and a Crypto Intelligence Associate.

FCA on the Hunt for Specialized Talent

The Crypto Intelligence Associate will be required to provide intelligence support and advice to authorities. The role is also described as involving “considerable amounts of liaison” with internal and external parties on the topic of crypto-assets. Basically, they are looking for an in-house crypto specialist to advise them as their regulation increases in scope.

The Cryptoasset Specialist Supervisor will be joining a new team dedicated to digital assets within the financial crime department. They are looking for someone with “excellent analytical and communication skills with a keen interest in crypto-assets and Distributed Ledger Technologies”.

The successful candidate will help formulate an approach for the financial crime division and will lead regular anti-money laundering-related visits to firms. He or she will also have to create reports on how various firms are managing their financial crime risk in the crypto space.

The Dots Connect

With these two job openings, it seems the FCA will continue to regulate the cryptocurrency industry rather than try to shut it out. The FCA is currently working on a “Guidance on Cryptoassets” report in which it hopes to provide regulatory clarity for participants in the cryptocurrency market. The report is expected to be published at some point later this summer.

These latest job openings also reinforce the laissez-faire stance which the UK government has taken with respect to cryptocurrency assets.

This is bolstered by the fact that the head of the UK’s Treasury department, Philip Hammond, recently said that the UK would work with others to ensure that the upcoming Libra cryptocurrency (and other cryptocurrencies) were efficiently regulated. He also stated that if this works, it could be “transformative in operating payment systems”.