Cryptocurrencies

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd March 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

In my original Answer I did not only talk about the financial promotion of crypto assets; I also talked about the regulation of stablecoin. In response to the noble Lord’s point about the anti-money laundering regulations and counterterrorist financing regulations which apply to crypto assets, I would like to reassure noble Lords that the regulations imposing sanctions on Russia apply to crypto assets. Legislation being introduced this week in the economic crime Bill will give the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation the powers it needs to enforce financial sanctions.

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)]

Does my noble friend not think that the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Haskel, is very important in the current context of sanctions? Is it a practical proposition to ask the providers of cryptocurrency facilities to remove from their list anyone with a Russian email address?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I absolutely agree on the importance of this issue. On firms placing blocks on Russian transactions, the Government and the FCA have communicated with crypto firms to ensure that they understand their obligations with regards to sanctions, which include applying risk-based controls to mitigate the risk of sanctions evasion. However, we do not require that all Russian persons have their accounts suspended or frozen; that would not be in line with our current approach.