In this regular update, we round-up FinTech-related financial services regulatory developments for the week ending 11 March 2022. Read more

On October 15, 2021, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued an industry-specific brochure entitled, “Sanctions Compliance Guidance for the Virtual Currency Industry” (the “OFAC Guidance”). Read more

On 5 August 2021, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation ("OFSI") announced the imposition of a monetary penalty of £50,000 on TransferGo Limited ("TransferGo") in respect of a breach of the financial sanctions imposed in respect of the situation in Ukraine. This is the fifth time OFSI has used its power to impose civil penalties for breach of financial sanctions (granted under the Policing and Crime Act 2017 (the "PCA")). Read more

On February 18, 2021, BitPay, Inc. (“BitPay”), a major cryptocurrency payment processing platform, entered into a $507,000 settlement with the Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”), to settle allegations that it processed cryptocurrency payments which violated various US sanctions programs.  Significantly, OFAC did not allege that BitPay knowingly violated sanctions laws or took steps to actively conceal violations.  Rather, OFAC alleged that BitPay had inadequate due diligence and internal controls policies in place which failed to identify potential sanctions violations. Read more