The Bank of England has come under fire for working with a fintech startup that was fined $700,000 by a US regulator for breaking banking secrecy laws.

Players in the fintech field have accused the central bank of appearing not to have conducted proper due diligence when selecting its partners after it emerged that Ripple, the startup chosen by the Bank of England to help research new blockchain technology, was fined for “willfully violating” several requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act.