A groundbreaking crypto enforcement move, flexibility on investment disclosures, and research into pensions advice in this week’s roundup.

Enforcement

The first charges laid by the FCA against an individual for running a network of crypto ATMs have been announced. Olumide Osunkoya, who is 45 and resides in London, has been accused of running crypto ATMs, which processed £2.6m ($3.4m) in crypto transactions across multiple locations between 29 December 2021 and 8 September 2023 without the required registration.

The charges mark the FCA’s first criminal prosecution relating to unregistered cryptoasset activity under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs).

City & Merchant Limited has entered liquidation with Dermot Coakley and Shaun Walker of WSM Marks Bloom LLP appointed as joint liquidators.

Rules and consultations

With naming and marketing and disclosure rules due to come into force from December 2, 2024, the FCA has offered firms temporary flexibility to comply until April 2, 2025.

The measure comes under the Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and investment labels regime (PS23/16) published last November.

The FCA explained: “Through engagement with industry and their representative trade bodies, it has become clear it has taken longer than expected for some firms to make the required changes. In particular, some firms wishing to use an investment label, or which need to change the names of their products, require more time to meet the higher standards and prepare the disclosures needed for our approval.  

“Given the importance of getting SDR right for investors, we are seeking to take a pragmatic and outcomes-based approach to provide further support to those firms which may need additional time to operationalise any changes required.”

Details of the exemptions are on the FCA announcement on its website.

Publications

A research paper aimed at helping pension firms engage better with their customers has been published. The research examined how effective different subject lines and email messages were in encouraging recipients to make informed decisions about retirement.

Among issues it tried to overcome were a tendency to focus on the present rather than the future (known as present bias) and the feeling of being overwhelmed by too much information.