Today, we are proud to welcome and announce Nick Passarelli as LGO Group’s first Chief Compliance Officer (CCO). We invite you to read the full interview below in order to better assess the important role Nick will play at LGO Group.

Nick has worked in regulatory compliance for 15 years at two SEC and FINRA member firms. He most recently served as the Chief Compliance Officer for Dealerweb Inc. where he has successfully designed, implemented and supervised a comprehensive compliance and surveillance program.

Can you tell us more about your motivation for joining LGO Group in New York City?

After meeting with Hugo Renaudin (CEO of LGO Markets) and Frederic Montagnon (CEO of LGO Group), I immediately believed in their vision. It is an incredible opportunity to be a part of a dynamic team that wants to help shape regulation in an emerging market.

From a personal perspective, being with an innovative company in a growing market is very exciting. I can leverage my experience in fixed income and equities and apply it to digital assets. LGO ’s asset-base is growing substantially, as well as the number of firms getting into the business. There is definitely a learning curve here, but I’m confident that I will pick it up quickly.

How do you view your role as a Chief Compliance Officer at LGO?

First and foremost, I see myself as a business partner. I want to be someone who collaborates with everyone and helps them in every aspect of the business.

I am committed to building a sensible framework which our employees and clients can easily understand. It also needs to be comprehensive enough to ensure that we are meeting our current and future regulatory obligations.

Finally, I have always actively communicated with clients. Similar to LGO, many of them will have their own regulatory obligations. They need to know what we are doing from a compliance perspective and be comfortable with it.

What opportunities and challenges is LGO facing when it comes to our regulatory requirements?

In my opinion, LGO Markets presents both a challenge and an opportunity. While there is very little existing regulation within cryptocurrencies, this also provides us with an incredible opportunity to establish a new bar for regulating our own marketplace. We have had a number of productive discussions with potential business partners who can assist us in our efforts, many of whom are already experienced in this space.

I love what Hugo Finkelstein and the LGO Launch team are building. ICOs really have received a great deal of scrutiny in the industry and we are very cognizant of this. Hugo and I have discussed creating a sensible program which meets our regulatory obligations, while providing the best level of service to their customers. The goal here is to have an established framework when they are ready to offer these services in the United States.

Are there any significant developments regarding the crypto-industry that you would like to highlight?

It’s interesting to see where countries stand on virtual currency regulation. On one hand, Japan and Switzerland will allow exchanges to operate from their countries if they’re registered with local financial services authorities. On the other hand, China began shutting down local bitcoin exchanges last fall, which followed a ruling where Chinese regulators banned ICO’s.

Within the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been the most vocal on digital assets and cryptocurrency. The SEC stated that certain ICO’s can be securities offerings. They have also stated that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not considered to be securities. The CFTC views bitcoin and other virtual currency as commodities. Finally, the Financial Industry and Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) has recently published a Notice To Members asking them to disclose their activities in Digital Assets.

Our goal at LGO is to work with the various regulators to ensure them that sensible regulation is being created in this marketplace.

What do you think differentiates LGO from other firms working on developing similar projects?

Frederic and Hugo are committed to fostering a culture of compliance. With that being said, they have given me their complete support in building out LGO’s compliance program. After spending the first two weeks meeting the team, we have already discussed a number of good ideas. Everyone at LGO is committed to the success of the company. The goal is to leverage my experience in order to create this culture and build a solid framework within LGO. I am extremely appreciative for this opportunity and look forward to a successful long-term partnership.

We are thrilled to welcome Nick aboard! Over the last few months, we’ve been focused on building out our product and bringing on key additions to the team. Adding Nick’s expertise in compliance will greatly help us achieve our goal of enabling large financial institutions to trade cryptocurrencies with complete confidence and trust, as well as open the doors for retail investors to utilize the same secure framework.

Welcome to the team Nick!