StarCompliance Unveils Key Findings Of Its Second Annual Crypto & Compliance Survey

Findings shed light on need for clearer guidelines, as well as the greater adoption of policies and software solutions

YORK, United Kingdom, Sept. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- StarCompliance ("Star"), a leading provider of employee compliance technology solutions, today released the key findings of its Second Annual Crypto & Compliance Survey, which examined how firms in the financial marketplace are approaching employee crypto-trading compliance. The survey was conducted to build awareness and provide greater clarification around the monitoring of employee transactions and holdings for crypto assets.

Results show that across the total population of those firms surveyed year-on-year, 37% now have an employee crypto-trading policy in place, while another 31% intend to put such a policy in place this year. Firms that have no plans of establishing such a policy in 2022 indicated they would implement policies in accordance with regulatory guidance once that guidance is officially put into effect.

"As the adoption of crypto and digital assets continues to increase, firms need to place greater emphasis on the monitoring and tracking of employee crypto transactions and holdings, to ensure they meet regulatory standards set out for securities," said Will Haggerty, Director of Product at Star. "With the publication of the results from our Crypto & Compliance Survey, we hope to clear up some of the confusion that remains over which digital assets are considered to be securities and which are not. We also hope to guide firms on the implementation of crypto-trading compliance best practices."

Following are key findings from the Star Second Annual Crypto & Compliance Survey:

• More than half (57%) of respondents estimate that their employees invest less than 25% of their tradable assets in crypto. However, 39% did not know how much of their employees' tradable assets are actually invested in crypto.
• The majority of respondents (63%) identify Millennials as the generation of employees that trade digital assets the most. This is likely because Millennials are the first "digital natives," i.e., those for whom digital assets are not perceived as radically different from traditional assets.
• 60% of respondents expect formal regulation and guidance on employee crypto-asset trading activity in the next 18 months, with a small subset (12%) not expecting regulatory policies to be implemented anytime soon.
• The number of firms reporting they are "Not Confident" in their understanding of how employees are trading crypto assets has decreased 13% from 2021. However, more than 40% of those surveyed still lack confidence in their understanding of the extent of the activity. This indicates there is still work to be done when it comes to improving crypto trade monitoring.

Star's Crypto Pre-Clearance software solution enables firms to monitor the crypto assets their employees are trading, and take the first step toward preventing potential conflicts related to such activity. The software's capabilities include trade-request pre-clearance: allowing employees who want to trade and sell crypto to do so easily while providing the business with visibility into this activity.

Find a further breakdown of the survey's findings here.

Star staff will be taking a deep dive into the survey results – and providing guidance on how firms can equip themselves to stay compliant – at the company's Synergy '22 events in both London (September 27) and Washington, DC (October 23-25). Seats are still available. Learn more here.

StarCompliance is the world's leading provider of compliance technology solutions. Trusted globally by forward-thinking companies in 114 countries, Star's future-ready compliance platform delivers on-demand configurability, multi-jurisdictional integrity, and the actionable intelligence you need to monitor for conflicts, meet regulatory obligations, and reduce risk. Compliance no longer needs to be complex. Check out Star's intuitive, straightforward UX and give your employees the multi-layered protection they need to comply with confidence. www.starcompliance.com