The Bank of England (BoE) is exploring avenues to tax the financial institutions it is currently overseeing as it looks to heighten its scrutiny of the crypto space in the United Kingdom. As reported by Bloomberg, the bank, through the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) division will raise the funds it needs to hire as many as 100 new regulators that can help drive its regulatory agenda in the nascent industry.
Per the Bloomberg report, citing the BoE’s business plan published on Wednesday, the PRA is seeking to employ 100 more staff and will “ask firms to report their cryptoasset exposures, treatments, and future investment plans,” to help establish a common international framework for digital currencies.
That the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem is now at least a $2 trillion industry is an indication that it can no longer be overlooked. The Bank of England has been doing all it can to bring the necessary monetary regulation to govern the growing industry, and with the proposed new staff, it will be able to coordinate global strategies in order to effectively handle the influence of the industry.
The PRA is looking to pull in as much as 321 million pounds ($419 million) from the companies it regulates, a figure that is 8% above that raised in the previous year. In justifying the need to increase its regulatory approach to the growing crypto industry, the regulator opines that the Mortgage industry that stirred a global financial meltdown back in 2008 was not as grown as the current blockchain ecosystem now is.
Regulating Cryptocurrencies as a Collective Effort
The regulation of digital currencies and their associated innovations is an arduous task that many regulators around the world are still building a framework around. While authorities are doing their bit in regulating the space, it is believed that every stakeholder, including players in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and the financial industry, must contribute their collective effort to power the growth of the ecosystem.
Just like American crypto executives testified before the US Congress to regulate the space, the move to draw in funds from commercial institutions within its jurisdiction is one innovative approach that many other regulators may seek to copy in the near future.
