UK Regulator FCA Opens Recruitment for Experts to Lead Crypto Department

The United Kingdom’s top market regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has put out an advert for an expert in digital currencies to come and head its crypto department.

According to the job description posted on its website, the market watchdog said the shortlisted candidate will head its regulatory push in the nascent cryptocurrency ecosystem.

“We are looking for a Head of Department (HoD) to build and lead a new crypto department that will lead and coordinate the FCA’s regulatory activity in this emerging market. This is a critical leadership role within a proposed new Directorate dealing with emerging business models in the SPC (Supervision, Policy, and Competition) division,” the announcement reads.

In addition, the candidate who takes this job will be tasked with the responsibility of “leading the FCA’s approach to regulatory interventions within the crypto firms in the UK, supervising innovative and complex business models of registered firms and dealing with unregistered crypto-asset businesses that may be involved in scams and frauds.”

Going by the massive role the candidate will take on, the FCA wants someone with an in-depth knowledge of the digital assets ecosystem as well as a deep knowledge of financial services. Amongst the desirable qualities include deep “knowledge and experience of policy development working with HM Treasury or similar, and applying the FCA’s supervisory tools.” While not primary, this requirement implies that the FCA will prefer someone who has likely worked in enforcement capacities in one of the country’s regulatory agencies.

The FCA has been restrategizing to bring comprehensive regulation to the nascent crypto ecosystem known for its fast growth. While the regulator has cracked down on a number of prominent trading platforms in the country, including Binance exchange, it is also known to have granted licenses to some like CEX.io in the past. 

The new head of its crypto department is billed to bring more structure and clear definition to the regulators’ role in enforcing extant laws guiding startups in the crypto ecosystem.