Binance Adds Former eToro Director Of Compliance To Its Team

Binance adds former eToro director of Compliance to its team following recent clashes with regulators in the UK and the Cayman Islands so let’s read more in our latest binance news today.

Binance adds former eToro Director of compliance Jonathan Farnell who will now be working as a new director of compliance. Farnell served as a director of compliance at eToro Money UK and the head of compliance at eToroX and said in a statement:

 “The crypto industry is fast-paced and faces unique challenges and I look forward to helping Binance grow in the next stage of its journey.”

For Binance, the hire came in the midst of series of clashes with regulators around the globe. In the past few weeks and months, Binance raised quite the noise for financial regulators across the world that publicly warned the exchange is not a licensed crypto exchange in their jurisdictions. Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao said that his exchange is the biggest in the world and it is a decentralized entity so it has no headquarters from which it conducts business but this didn’t really satisfy the regulators.

The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority said that Binance or Binance Group and Holdings Limited were not registered, licensed, regulated, or otherwise authorized to operate as an exchange from the Cayman Islands. On the same day, the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission filed a criminal complaint against Binance for operating withut a license. A few days earlier, the UK Financial Conduct Authority issued a consumer warning over binance Markets Limited which is an entity acquired to own and operate that would-be-bespoke UK exchange offered by the platform. An FCA spokesperson said that while it could not ban Binance outright, it did what it could to keep the customers safe by banning Binance Markets Limited from operating in the UK.

The FCA spokesperson also said that the regulatory authorities have issues with standards relating to the company’s approach to money laundering risks. Last month, Japan’s financial services Agency issued a warning to Binance claiming the exchange was operating without a license. Amidst all of the regulatory controversies, Binance maintained that it takes a collaborative approach to work with regulators and that it takes compliance regulations seriously. Clearly, hiring Farnell onto the team is a part of the attempt to address the regulatory challenges it faced. Samual Lim who is the chief compliance officer said:

“We are committed to meeting our compliance obligations everywhere we operate and bringing Jonathan on board is a significant step forwards in developing our team.”

In the aftermath, a Binance spokesperson said that the exchange has entities “incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands performing activities that are permitted by law.”