UK Finance, the trade body representing Britain's banking and payments industry, has ended Coinbase's membership, Bloomberg reported. The decision was communicated by the group's board to the exchange last week, though the association has not publicly explained its reasoning.
According to Bloomberg's sourcing, Coinbase no longer meets UK Finance's current admission criteria. The exchange has the option to appeal the decision. At the time the first reports emerged, Coinbase still appeared listed in UK Finance's public directory of members.
UK Finance represents more than 300 companies active across banking, payments and financial markets, and regularly engages with government departments and regulators, including on consultations covering stablecoins, tokenisation and payment infrastructure. Its position as a conduit between industry and policymakers gives membership decisions like this one some weight, even where they carry no direct regulatory consequence.
Coinbase said the move does not affect its existing regulatory authorisations or its ability to offer services in the UK. Its current permissions remain unchanged.
Timing against the FCA calendar
The exclusion lands weeks before the Financial Conduct Authority opens its application window for the UK's incoming crypto regulatory regime, set to run from 30 September 2026 to 28 February 2027. The full regime is due to enter into force on 25 October 2027.
Under the FCA's framework, firms already registered under existing anti-money laundering rules will not be automatically converted into authorised entities. They must apply afresh for authorisation under the Financial Services and Markets Act. Companies that already hold other permissions, as Coinbase does, will need to request a modification to those permissions to cover the new crypto activities the regime will cover.
A wider pattern of friction with banks
The UK Finance decision surfaces against a backdrop of persistent tension between banks and crypto platforms over payment access. A survey by the UK Cryptoasset Business Council found that banks blocked or delayed roughly 40% of payments directed to surveyed crypto platforms, a figure that has fed into broader industry complaints about how traditional lenders treat regulated crypto firms.
Whether UK Finance's move reflects that friction, a narrower recalibration of its own admission standards, or something specific to Coinbase's application has not been made clear by the association. For now, the practical effect on Coinbase's UK operations is limited, but the episode adds a note of friction to the run-up to a licensing process that will determine how crypto exchanges are treated by regulators, and by the banking sector, for years to come.
