Denmark’s Financial Regulator Orders Saxo Bank to Divest Its Crypto Holdings
Danish bank Saxo has been ordered by the Danish financial regulator to sell its own crypto holdings, the agency announced on Wednesday.
The Danish Financial Services Authority (FSA) stated that for reasons of financial stability, it is not legal under the current regulations for banks to engage in such activities as ancillary banking activities.
The financial regulator also said that since the European Union’s crypto regulation, known as Markets for Cryptoassets Regulation (MiCA), only comes into effect effective from December 30, 2024, the activity is unregulated for the time being.
“Unregulated trading in crypto assets can create distrust in the financial system and the Danish FSA believes that it would be baseless to legitimize trading in crypto assets,” the statement said.
“We are of course taking into account the Financial Regulator’s decision and will read it carefully to consider how otherwise to respond.” “In that regard, we have only held a very limited portfolio of cryptocurrencies to hedge a very small part of the risk involved in providing crypto assets,” Saxo Bank said in a statement.
“Most of this exposure.” is mitigated by exchange traded and settled products. As such, the FSA’s decision will have a very limited impact on our business and our customers will not experience any significant changes,” the statement said.
UPDATE (5 Jul 2023, 11:46 UTC): Adds Saxo statement.
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