The Crypto and Digital Assets All-Party Parliamentary Group has launched an inquiry into whether UK crypto businesses and consumers can access banking services, opening a six-week call for evidence that closes on 31 August.
What the Inquiry Covers
The APPG said it will examine two related issues. The first is access to bank accounts and banking services for crypto and digital asset businesses, including associated professional services such as insurance. The group said it has heard from firms that struggled to open or retain business accounts or to obtain the payment and merchant services needed to receive customer funds, pay staff and suppliers, or invest.
The second is restrictions banks place on crypto-related transactions. The APPG said it has heard concerns that some UK banks block payments to certain crypto firms or impose transfer limits and that it wants to understand how those measures are applied, whether they are proportionate, and what effect they have on consumers, competition, and innovation.
The inquiry will also assess the impact on investment and economic growth, look for examples of good practice domestically and internationally, and consider solutions that improve access while preserving safeguards against fraud and financial crime.
Asking the Same Question Three Years Later
The APPG has been here before. Its 2022-23 inquiry into the government’s ambition for the UK to become a global hub for crypto and fintech found that access to banking services was one of the most significant barriers facing the sector, with evidence that legitimate firms struggled to obtain or retain business accounts.
That inquiry’s final report called for clearer pathways for legitimate firms to access banking and for greater dialogue between government, regulators, banks, and the sector. The group now says that three years on, with the UK’s regulatory regime taking shape, it is timely to revisit the issue, “assess what progress has been made and consider whether further action is required.”
The implicit finding in that framing is that the problem identified in 2023 has not been resolved.
The Timing Is the Point
The inquiry lands at a specific moment in the UK’s regulatory transition. The Financial Conduct Authority finalized its crypto framework on 30 June, lowering the minimum capital requirement for stablecoin issuers to 1% of issued token value and requiring backing assets to sit in a statutory trust.
The FCA expects to open its authorization gateway in September 2026, with the full regime taking effect in October 2027. Every firm in scope must apply afresh; existing anti-money-laundering registrations will not carry over automatically.
That sequence sets up the question the inquiry is really asking. Crypto firms are about to receive formal FCA authorization for the first time, and the sector’s assumption has been that regulatory legitimacy would unlock banking relationships. Banks, however, have generally justified restrictions on money-laundering risk, fraud prevention, and compliance costs rather than on regulatory status—grounds that authorization alone may not address.
The issue has been building publicly. In June, campaign group Stand With Crypto UK pressed banks over transfer blocks affecting FCA-registered exchanges, arguing the restrictions limit consumer choice and sit awkwardly with the government’s stated ambition for the sector.
What the APPG Can and Cannot Do
The group’s standing is worth understanding. An All-Party Parliamentary Group is an informal cross-party body of MPs and members of the House of Lords. It is not a select committee: it cannot compel evidence or witnesses, and its reports carry no binding force on government, regulators, or banks.
The Crypto and Digital Assets APPG is supported by CryptoUK, the sector’s trade association, as its secretariat—a common arrangement for APPGs and one that means an industry body is administering the inquiry into a problem its members have raised.
What such groups do carry is access and visibility. The APPG’s recent output has tracked closely with sector positions, including statements welcoming the FCA’s final rules, the Bank of England’s decision to scrap stablecoin holding limits, and joint UK-US recommendations on digital assets. Its findings feed into parliamentary debate rather than into rulemaking directly.
How to Submit
The call for evidence runs from 21 July to 31 August 2026. The APPG has invited submissions from banks, payment service providers, crypto firms, fintechs, trade associations, regulators, academics, legal experts, and consumer groups.
Responses should run to no more than six pages and may address any or all of six questions covering the scale of the problem, its impact, its causes, international comparisons, and potential remedies. The group said it will review submissions before publishing a report with findings and recommendations.
Whether banks participate may prove the most telling detail. The inquiry’s value depends on evidence from the institutions making the lending and account decisions, and they are under no obligation to provide it.
