Quick take:
- The new hire comes as Binance focuses on complying with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.
- Binance aims to operate a regulated crypto asset business in the UK.
- Crypto regulation has become a hot industry topic following the collapse of FTX.
Binance has hired a new UK director as the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange focuses on complying with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Announcing the new hire, Binance Regional Manager of Europe and the UK Ilir Laro said in a LinkedIn post: “Our main focus will be to register and comply with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to operate a regulated crypto-asset business in the UK.”
Patel was most recently global risk & compliance lead at Rain, a cryptocurrency brokerage and custodian servicing the Middle East, Turkey, and North Africa. Prior to that, he was a senior legal & compliance manager at Hamilton Capital.
His appointment at Binance was due partly to his experience as the first crypto asset specialist at the FCA, a role he held from 2019-2020. During his time with the FCA, he was directly involved in spearheading the assessment and authorisation of the first crypto asset firm in the UK, Gemini Europe, in addition to being heavily involved in complex cases with Binance Group Worldwide.
He was hired by the FCA for his SME crypto asset and financial crime knowledge, which he gained from his role as a financial crime senior consultant at EY from 2016-2019.
In his new role at Binance, Patel has made a career move from compliance to business and is responsible for managing regulatory affairs and strategies, revenue growth, growing customer base, increasing cost efficiencies, day-to-day business operations, enhancing platform user experience and Ideation of new product and service offerings.
The regulation of the crypto space has become a hot industry topic following the shockingly quick collapse of FTX. Once the world’s second-largest crypto exchange, FTX and its CEO Sam Bankman-Fried are currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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