Barclays in talks to bring cryptocurrency ‘into play’ in UK

Banking giant Barclays has reportedly broached the topic of digital currencies “the equivalent of bitcoin” to UK’s top financial regulator.

Specifically, Britain’s largest bank pitched the idea of bringing cryptocurrencies “into play” to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), CEO Ashok Vaswani told CNBC. Vaswani did not elaborate on what the “play” means, but he noted that the bank has been with working with the financial regulator as well as fintech start-ups for projects focusing on blockchain.

“We have been talking to a couple of fintechs and have actually gone with the fintechs to the FCA to talk about how we could bring, the equivalent of bitcoin, not necessarily bitcoin, but cryptocurrencies into play,” Vaswani told the news outlet.

Despite being known for fostering innovation in the fintech space, the FCA is cautious towards investing in cryptocurrencies. Recently, the financial regulator underlined the volatility of cryptocurrency as it urged the public to be wary of trading in digital currencies like bitcoin.