South African Regulator Issues Warning Against Binance Exchange

The South African regulator issued a warning against Binance crypto exchange as the platform took heat from multiple national regulators this year as we are reading more today in our Binance news.

The South African regulator issued a public warning that Binance Group is not authorized to provide financial advice or render any intermediary services in terms of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act in the country. Binance responded that they don’t recognize their authority either way. In a statement, the exchange said that it does provide financial advice or intermediary services as it went on to point out something that is outlined in the FSCA letter, which is that the FSCA doesn’t regulate cryptos or crypto exchanges.

For that reason, it hasn’t worked with the South African regulator but it has been continuously collaborating with the FIC – Financial Intelligence Centre. The FSCA regulates financial institutions like banks and insurers in the second-biggest economy with the goals of maintaining a fair market and protecting the consumers. The FIC cracks down on financial crimes like the financing of terrorism and money laundering which is the closest entity to the FinCEN in the United States.

Binance also stirred some trouble in the FSCA statement which referred to teh Binance Group as an international company that has a seat in Seychelles but according to the exchange, there’s no associated entity named Binance Group in Seychelles. Binance was actually registered in the Cayman Islands and Seychelles but Binance has been reticent to name the headquarters and preferred to present itself as a global company. That doesn’t sit well with country regulators as the US CFTC started investing the exchange over whether it allows American residents to use its services that are not registered in the country. The DOJ and the IRS also opened an investigation into Binance’s activities.

Binance has not been charged still but it did feel the consequences. It announced tightened KYC requirements for the users to verify their identity as Brian Brooks who is the CEO of binance US, left the exchange over differences in opinion on how the company should handle US regulators. The exchange has also taken some heat from the central banks and other regulators like the Monetary Authority of Singapore put Binance on the Investor Alert List and notified the residents in the country that the exchange is not regulated or licensed by MAS. The UK, Netherlands, Japan, Italy, and Malaysia issued similar warnings about Binance and none of them dented the stronghold on trading.