The Crypto and Digital Assets All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) launched a formal Parliamentary Inquiry on 21 July 2026 into banking access for UK-based crypto and digital asset businesses. The inquiry, co-chaired by Lord Vaizey of Didcot and Labour MP Gurinder Singh Josan CBE, will run a six-week call for written evidence closing on 31 August 2026, after which the APPG will publish findings and recommendations to Government.
The timing is deliberate. The inquiry follows the publication of the UK’s new crypto regulatory framework and is framed as a test of whether banking frictions could undermine the Government’s stated ambition to position the UK as a global digital-asset hub.
The two problems under examination
The APPG has identified two distinct issues. The first is account access: crypto and digital-asset firms, including regulated entities, report persistent difficulty opening or retaining business bank accounts and accessing payment and merchant services. The second is transaction restrictions: several major UK banks, named in the notes to the release as including HSBC, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander UK and Starling Bank, have introduced measures such as blocking payments to crypto exchanges or imposing transfer limits on customers.
Research published by the UK Cryptoasset Business Council in January 2026 provides the sharpest data point in the release: UK banks were blocking or delaying an estimated 40% of attempted transfers to crypto exchanges, and 70% of exchanges surveyed said banking restrictions were affecting investment, expansion or hiring decisions in the UK. If those figures hold under scrutiny, they represent a significant drag on a sector the Government has publicly committed to developing.
The inquiry is not starting from scratch. The same APPG ran an equivalent inquiry in 2022/23, whose 2023 report warned that banking restrictions risked undermining the UK’s digital-asset ambitions and called for urgent action. The political temperature has since shifted: in March 2026, Lucy Rigby MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, told Parliament that the Government would not expect licensed crypto firms to face banking restrictions “simply because of the sector they belong to.” That statement gives the APPG a ministerial position to test against industry evidence.
Regulatory and competitive context
The inquiry sits inside a wider, unresolved tension between anti-financial-crime obligations and sector access. UK banks operating under the Money Laundering Regulations and FCA rules face real compliance costs when onboarding crypto clients, particularly where transaction monitoring for crypto-linked activity requires specialist tooling. The FCA’s ongoing development of its cryptoasset registration and licensing regime is intended to reduce that risk premium, but the licensing framework is not yet fully in force.
Internationally, the inquiry will examine approaches taken by the United States, Hong Kong, Australia and the European Union. The EU’s MiCA regulation, which began phased application in 2024, establishes a passportable licensing regime across member states, though whether it has materially improved banking access for crypto firms remains contested. The US context is particularly relevant after the rollback of several bank-crypto restrictions under the current administration, a policy shift that UK industry advocates have pointed to as a competitive pressure on the UK.
The call for evidence is open to banks, crypto and digital-asset businesses, professional services firms and any other interested stakeholders. The APPG’s report, once published, will carry political weight but no statutory force: any regulatory change would require action from HM Treasury, the FCA or the Prudential Regulation Authority. The practical question is whether the inquiry produces concrete recommendations that the incoming crypto licensing regime can operationalise, or whether it reprises the 2023 report’s warnings without new levers to pull.
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