Binance Hires Highs Ex Fca Head

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Binance Hires Highs Ex Fca Head

Binance Hires Highs Ex FCA Head

Binance has hired a new director to look after the regulatory policy of the exchange. The new man is Steven McWhirter and he was one of the top officials at the United Kingdom's FCA. He had some key roles in the fintech-related segments. He recently worked in the data and innovation division as an engagement and strategy manager.

His appointment was announced through a LinkedIn post of the crypto exchange and McWhirter himself confirmed the same. He said to have been fortunate for being involved in global, European and national policy debates and initiatives related to financial regulation in technology as he had to work with many international bodies, firms and regulators simultaneously.

He added that it was not thought as a regulator during his time that Cloud, DLT, AI, DAO or MetaFi would become topical in the near future.

The appointment of McWhirter comes amid the chief executive of Binance was spotted wooing government officials gathering in Westminster.

It is yet to be revealed where the ex-FCA will be based while working for Binance. Meanwhile, it is learned that the fintech chief of the Bank of England has joined Fireblocks. Former FCA official named Matthias Bauer-Langgartner has joined the Australia-based Bitpanda exchange. He will be chairing the post of managing director and to be looking after the UK and Ireland markets. Similarly, an ex-UK chancellor joined Copper in 2021 as a senior advisor.

About FCA

FCA is an abbreviation of the Financial Conduct Authority. It was formed in April 2013 and replaced the preceding Financial Services Authority. It is a financial regulatory authority and works alongside the Financial Policy Committee and the Prudential Regulation Authority in setting up regulatory requirements in the UK markets.

About Binance

Binance was founded in 2017 by Yi He and Changpeng Zhao. It is a cryptocurrency exchange and headquartered in the Cayman Islands, Seychelles. It was initially headquartered in China but had to shut down operations in the country following a crackdown by the Chinese government with increased regulation.

Changpeng Zhao is the chief executive of Binance. He had earlier founded Fusion Systems way back in 2005 in the Chinese city of Shanghai and later worked as CTO with the OKCoin group.

Binance became the largest crypto exchange in the world in January 2018 equipped with a market capitalization of about $1.3 billion. The closest rival is Coinbase. The exchange has a stake of $200 million in Forbes.

Binance turned a deaf ear to voices of banning Russian users from its platform due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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