Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of applying affordability criteria to people wishing to trade shares, commodities, currency or crypto.

The Government is committed to striking a careful balance between improving broad access to financial markets, while also ensuring that appropriate protection measures are in place. This reflects the Government’s broader ambition to ensure that the benefits of corporate growth can be broadly shared, while ensuring financial markets work effectively for all market participants.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the UK’s independent financial markets conduct regulator and is responsible for protecting consumers. The FCA has published several statements about the potential risks of investing in securities and has warned consumers that that any losses that result from such investments are not always covered under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Similarly, the FCA has banned the sale of cryptoasset derivatives to retail consumers, and has issued a warning stating that consumers who invest in cryptoassets should be prepared to lose their money.

Furthermore, on 18 January 2022, the government set out its intention to legislate later this year to bring certain cryptoassets into financial promotion regulation.