Italy Joins Global Regulators' Campaign Against Binance Exchange
The Italian regulator stated on Thursday:
“Consob warns savers that the companies of the ‘Binance Group’ are not authorized to provide investment services and activities in Italy, not even through the website www.binance.com.”
Certain sections of Binance.com, including ‘derivatives’ and ‘stock tokens’, are written in Italian, said Consob. Binance.com has been available in Italian since 2018.
Binaince spokesperson commented:
“We are aware of the notice from CONSOB and can confirm that Binance.com does not operate out of Italy. This has no direct impact on the services provided on Binance.com.”
“We take a collaborative approach in working with regulators and we take our compliance obligations very seriously. We are actively keeping abreast of changing policies, rules and laws in this new space.”
Financial regulators often consider translation of the online site where services are offered to specific language, a solicitation effort in that country, regardless whether the company has physical presence in the country. It’s somewhat clear in cases like Italian, Japanese, and other languages that are only spoken in a specific country. It gets more complicated with English, Spanish, Portuguese which are more difficult to point out to one country.
Global crackdown on Binance
Consob’s warning is similar to other regulators’ notices and actions against Binance in recent weeks.
The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, Japan’s Financial Services Authority, and Singapore’s Monetary Authority Service issued investor warnings that Binance is not regulated to operate in their respective jurisdictions.
Whereas more serious action was taken by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, who forced Binance to withdraw its services from the Canadian province.
Similarly, Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission filed a criminal complaint on the grounds Binance is operating a crypto exchange without a license. Thai police are said to be involved with the notice.
Joining in on the witch hunt, U.K banks have stopped payments to crypto businesses, with several specifically mentioning Binance. The list includes Santander, Barclays, Monza, TSB, Nat West, Metro Bank, HSBC, and Lloyds.
Source: Italy Joins Global Regulators' Campaign Against Binance Exchange – Fintechs.fi