This article briefly:
· The media spoke exclusively to Dr. Lisa Cameron, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets.
·Dr Cameron spoke about the wide knowledge gap in the UK Parliament about this complex sector.
· Furthermore, after speaking to the Treasury, the Bank of England and other parts of government, it is clear that the UK regulatory strategy is not to take a leading role.
Parliament’s top cryptocurrency lawmaker says the UK will not race to set global cryptocurrency regulatory standards, according to the country’s largest economic body.
Dr Lisa Cameron MP has been a member of the Scottish National Party since 2015 and she is currently the head of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets.
She told the media that the industry first became an area of concern about 18 months ago after a constituent lost some money in a scam. Her constituent asked her to check who in parliament was working on cryptocurrencies, and found no one. "I asked my researcher to look into the industry and found that we have millions of constituents involved."
Dr Cameron has approached industry body Crypto UK to establish an APPG on cryptocurrencies and digital assets, hoping to provide a framework for parliamentary scrutiny and policy development.
APPGs help MPs and peers from different parties to discuss issues, propose policy and debate in Parliament. Any MP or Peer can create one and do things like run meetings, ask questions, write reports and invite experts to give evidence. They are not officially part of Parliament but can still influence government decisions and how Parliament works.
“That comes very much from a consumer protection and redress stance, which remains at the core of what we do.”
The UK will not take the lead in regulation
As a global financial hub, the UK is often under pressure to become an international standard setter for the rest of the world, and London is still considered the second largest financial center. But there is a feeling that the UK is lagging behind in digital asset regulation.
“I’m doing some work on the EU and MiCA and how far they’re getting. I don’t want the UK to fall behind.” However, when she spoke to the Bank of England, the government and the Treasury, they had other ideas about how fast the UK should go. “There’s a huge advantage to being second or third in terms of looking at what’s working, leveraging what’s working and fixing anything that might not be working.”
Has Brexit negatively impacted the U.K.’s crypto economy? She paused for a moment, then said, “Look, I didn’t vote for Brexit, but we’re where we are. I just deal with practical issues.”
“It does offer the UK the opportunity to create a bespoke regulatory system, which is a bit much for us, but we can take advantage of some of those opportunities and hopefully capitalise on the prime minister’s vision for the UK to become a cryptocurrency hub.”
Is UK Crypto the ‘Wild West’?
Not everyone in the UK is as open to the crypto industry as Dr. Cameron. Last month, the chair of the Treasury Select Committee referred to UK crypto as the “Wild West.” This came after 85% of cryptocurrency companies that applied for registration with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) failed to meet minimum standards for money laundering and counter-terrorism.
Incoming FCA chair Ashley Alder recently told the Treasury Select Committee that crypto platforms are “deliberately evasive” and how large organizations within the industry are involved in large-scale money laundering.
Reflecting on recent comments, Cameron said there were elements of mixed messages.
“On the one hand, you have this statement. And then, on the other hand, the prime minister says he wants the UK to be a hub for cryptocurrency. So what I have to do in my job as chair of the group is try to work through that.”
“Yes, we need consumer protection. With FTX and everything, some people might get scammed, like my own constituents. So for some people, yes, it might be the Wild West, so I agree with that. But that’s why we need to have a regulatory framework. Once we have a framework that gives consumers and investors confidence, we can take advantage of the opportunity and the potential.”
The Politician Knowledge Gap
During Cameron’s fireside chat, she shared an incident where she had to explain to an MP that “Fiat” did not refer to cars. She expressed concern about the knowledge gap among UK lawmakers about this complex and growing sector, painting a worrying picture.
“At the beginning of this journey, people’s knowledge was very limited,” she said.
"In parliament we tend to be mostly generalists. So you'll understand there are a lot of debates in parliament every day and we can have opinions on a number of issues. We tend to know a lot of things but it's really not sector specific."
"When I started looking into who was doing this work in parliament and when it was talked about, there was no debate at all about the sector."
“This year, we have two,” she told me in late February, sounding delighted. “We asked the minister a lot of questions, and we received a statement from the government. So, you know, we have a lot of momentum now.”
Cameron herself is modest about her knowledge, though, and emphasizes her own learning journey. “Members of Congress have a limited knowledge base, and I’m one of them,” she tells me, hand on heart, smiling as her MP’s aide hands her lunch. “You need an education program first, we have to upskill ourselves, this is not a department where you pick up a handout and then go speak to the House.”
