Coinbase has announced that they will now be offering UK users of the exchange quick deposits and withdrawals of fiat money to and from the exchange using the Faster Payment Service (FPS). This is great news for UK users who have up until now been unable to quickly convert their crypto assets back to fiat. In the past they have had to transfer funds back to their accounts via a European bank which would take up to 5 days and also come with a Euro-Sterling conversion fee.
The news was announced on a blog post from the exchange yesterday:
European customers. Today we’re excited to share two updates — the first is that Coinbase has been granted an e-money license by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The second is that we are the first crypto-exchange to support the UK’s Faster Payments Scheme.
By replacing SEPA [Single Euro Payments Area] for UK customers, Faster Payments will offer a familiar payment experience and is supported by all major UK banks. UK customers will benefit from faster, safer and seamless bank transfers.
Exactly which bank has offered Coinbase this ability is unknown at this point but assuming the license can be sustained and everything runs smoothly this could be a sign that finally banks maybe willing to deal with Cryptocurrency exchanges in the UK. In the past relationships have been short lived and while UK Exchanges such as Bitstamp initially held a UK Bank account this was soon dropped and banking services had to be sourced from outside the UK.
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