Binance customers frozen out of withdrawals via key UK payment network

Binance customers have lost the ability to withdraw and deposit pounds using one of the main UK payments systems three days after the country’s financial watchdog banned the crypto exchange from operating in Britain.

On Monday the digital asset company said on its main exchange, Binance.com, that the ability to remove sterling from the platform through a system known as Faster Payments had been “suspended for maintenance”. Binance did not say how long the outage would last and declined to immediately comment on the notice.

Faster Payments, a service used by major banks to process payments quickly, is one of the key channels for moving traditional currencies to and from the exchange. While Binance’s website says customers can still move money using bank cards, the lack of access to Faster Payments represents a significant curb on UK clients’ abilities to pull money from the exchange directly into their bank accounts. Several people messaged Binance on Twitter on Monday to enquire about the Faster Payments suspension.

Faster Payments could not be reached for comment.

Binance is one of the world’s biggest digital asset companies. It processed roughly $1.5tn in transactions last month, according to the BlockCrypto. Regulators in several countries including Japan and Germany have recently censured the exchange — which offers trading in cryptocurrencies and a wide range of products linked to digital coins — for doing business in their countries without appropriate approval.

The suspension comes after the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority on Friday ordered Binance’s regulated UK affiliate to halt any financial activities in traditional currencies in the UK. The group also withdrew its application to be a registered crypto exchange last month after extensive discussions with the FCA. The regulator’s primary focus when reviewing such applications is practices and controls related to preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The exchange had said at the weekend that FCA’s intervention “has no direct impact on the services provided on Binance.com”.

The FCA has also been scrutinising the broader Binance holding company’s links with UK consumers, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Binance typically has access to Faster Payments and a similar system for the eurozone called Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa) through an FCA-regulated company called ClearJunction, Binance says on its website. ClearJunction’s chief executive, Dima Kats, declined to comment on whether Binance had lost access to Faster Payments but said it had paid close attention to the regulators’ actions.

Access to euro transfers through Sepa appeared to be active on Binance.com as of 6pm London time on Monday.