British Financial Watchdog Approves BCB Group as Authorized Payment Firm

BCB Group, a European crypto-focused payment processor for the likes of major global crypto firms like Coinbase, has secured a license from British regulators.

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has officially approved the firm’s core subsidiary, BCB Payments, as an authorized payment institution (API), BCB Group announced on Jan. 29.

The company is now officially regulated both in the U.K. and Switzerland

Having secured an API license from the FCA, BCB Group now holds two regulatory approvals to offer cryptocurrency-related services in Europe. BCB Payments sister firm, BCB OTC Trading SARL, is already regulated in Switzerland as it’s overseen by the Financial Services Standards Association, a self-regulatory organization recognized by the Federal Financial Market Supervisory Authority.

According to the firm, BCB Group is now the only dually regulated institution of its kind to offer customers a unified suite of payment services, crypto trading and custody services. The company’s platform is enabled with its proprietary application programming interface and integration into the R3’s blockchain network Corda, the press release notes.

Coinbase, Bitstamp and Galaxy Digital are among clients

More specifically, BCB Group’s business is focused on providing business-to-business payment services and cryptocurrency market liquidity for institutional clients. The company services some of the world’s largest crypto companies including United States-based crypto exchange and wallet service Coinbase and major European crypto exchange Bitstamp. Other clients include major crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital and crypto brokerage firm Tagomi, the firm said.

Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie, founder and CEO at BCB Group, noted that the recent regulatory approval shows that the industry is able to grow while ensuring that it fully complies with “some of the most stringent regulations in force globally.

The news comes weeks after the FCA officially announced that it began supervising Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance of local crypto-engaged companies. On Jan. 10, the British financial regulator purportedly became the U.K.'s sole AML authority for the crypto business.