Revolut receives the green light for the operation of the British cryptocurrency business

The Finance app Revolut has received permanent approval from the Financial Conduct Authority to operate its cryptocurrencies in Great Britain after the company was in the temporary register of the watchdog for months.

The message comes while the 33-billion dollar fintech is waiting for a decision about its British banking license and is confronted with questions about its examination and a cyber attack that was affected by around 50,000 customers.

The FCA became the supervisory authority in early 2020 to combat money laundering for British cryptopro groups and has argued with the industry about the speed with which it processed applications.

Revolut was part of a small number of groups, which were granted an extension of the temporary cryptocurrency license program of the FCA in March. It was the last company on this list because other applicants withdrew their applications, the registration was refused or their licenses were granted before the end of June. According to the FCA, Revolut received its registration on Monday.

Registration with the FCA will enable revolut to continue to operate a business with digital assets based in Great Britain-including trade and the supply of the custody of crypto assets-which became compulsory in April. The FCA's assessment focuses on controls against money laundering and terrorism financing.

"Revolut has agreed to a number of instructions that should ensure that it has the systems and controls to meet the requirements of money laundering regulations," said the FCA.

Revolut said that it was "pleased to have received full registration as a crypto-asset company". The company registered as a provider of crypto-assets in Cyprus in August.

In 2018, Revolut discovered a flood of alleged money laundering problems that reported the law enforcement authorities and the FCA. In the following year it was confronted with questions after it turned out that in 2018 it had "erroneously" switched off an automated system for reporting potential money laundering for several months.

Revolut has been offering cryptocurrencies trade in front of most of its competitors since 2017. Last year the CEO Nik Storonsky said that the company would continue to invest in services related to volatile investment class.

The FinTech was rated in an $ 800 million finance round in July 2021 with $ 33 billion, which was led by Softbank's Vision Fund 2 and Tiger Global Management, but in the past few months there were challenges, including a emigration of managers such as the British money laundering officer, UK Risk Officer, UK Data Protection Officer and UK and Global Heads of Regulatory Compliance.

At the beginning of this month, it was hit by a cyber attack, of which more than 50,000 of its 20 million customers were affected, as can be seen from a statement by the Lithuanian state data protection authority that has initiated an investigation of the data protection violation.

The FinTech is also under the pressure of the auditors to improve internal controls after the British supervisory authorities have determined significant defects in the examination of their accounts, including an "unacceptable" risk of "essential false information".

Revolut Group Holdings Ltd, the group's parent company, must submit the annual financial statements 2021 to Friday. The accounts of Revolut Newco UK, the company that is to accommodate the British banking license requested by Revolut in January 2021, have been overdue since June 10.

At the beginning of this month, the Financial Times reported that Revolut was in the middle of a large business check with the code name "Project Prism" that started in May. It has also revoked job offers for a handful of graduates with only a few days.