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The head of the UK financial supervisor said that many young people invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin instead of capital or bonds, flags this as an example of the problems its new strategy has been created to address.
Nikhil Rathi said that millions of people under the age of 35 had made their first investment in Cryptocurrency, on which “there is a very high risk that you can lose all your money.”
The chief executive of the Financial Behavior Authority told MPs on Tuesday that the number of British people who owned shares was “significantly lower” than in the US, where 38 percent keep their capital, or in Sweden, where it is more than 20 percent.
Helping customers to invest more in capital or bond markets to achieve higher long-term returns was one of the four main objectives that FCA on Tuesday presented as part of its five-year strategy.
A metric that FCA will use to measure its success is whether there is an increase in consumer proportion to more than £ 10,000 of investment assets that keep “major investments” by 2030.
“One thing I think is not excellent is the large number of children under 35 for whom the financial product in which they first invest is Crypto-some million in the United Kingdom-instead of shares or debts or other types of products,” Rathi MPS told the Treasury Committee.
UK cryptocurrencies are largely unregulated, except for a request for firms to register in FCA so that they respect the money laundering rules. The government plans legislation to create a regulatory regime for cryptocurrencies.
Last year, FCA estimated 12 percent of UK adults owned by cryptocurrencies, equivalent to about 7MN people, with men under 35 more likely to borrow money to do so, based on a study by almost 2,200 people.
“We have also evolved a special approach to risk and compensation in the United Kingdom, which may not match other parts of the world,” Rathi said, adding that this was “not all in the FCA”.
The ownership of the UK low -level shares was due to “a mix of taxes, education, regulation and wider culture in our country,” he added.
FCA, which in the past has been criticized for the stalemate of innovation and investment, committed to “deepening confidence, the risk of ribalasia, supporting growth and improves life” with its new strategy, which received careful welcome from the city.
The regulator said it will use more technology technology such as artificial intelligence to be “more efficient and effective”, also supporting economic growth by enabling investment and innovation.
Financial crime attempt and wrongdoing would also be an advantage of FCA to increase confidence in the sector, adding that it would focus “on those seeking to use the fact that they are regulated to do harm”.
Chris Hayward, president of the London City Corporation, welcomed the “FCA initiative to arouse a vital debate on the risk and appetite for growth within the sector”. Director General of the British Association Association Hannah Gurga said the new guard strategy “sets a positive direction for the future of adjustment”.
FCA said earlier on Tuesday that it will run its rules by “retiring” more than 100 pages of rules covering consumer finances, investments and mortgage borrowings.
Simplifying the FCA Rules Book, which goes to more than 10,000 pages, comes after Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a “radical action plan to reduce the red bar” to reduce the cost of business for a quarter.
The defender said he planned to attract hundreds of supervisory publications and was reviewing his “recipe detection rules” to give the most flexibility firms in areas such as online transactions.
Other areas under consideration include the requirements for property managers to report annually if their tariffs are justified, the rules of detection for credit advertising and the need for insurers to apply the UK rules to foreign customers.
However, consumer groups are afraid that the regulator risks shortening the main measures. “The general direction of the travel is worrying,” said James Daley, head of the Fairer Finance Research Group. “FCA is clearly under pressure to demonstrate that it is taking action to reduce the burden of adjustment – but many of these proposals would be a step back.”
