WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is the text of the joint announcement of the Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC on future regulatory work on bank handling of crypto assets:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
November 23, 2021
Joint Statement on Crypto-Asset Policy Sprint Initiative and Next Steps
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively, agencies) recognize that the
emerging crypto-asset sector presents potential opportunities and risks for banking organizations,
their customers, and the overall financial system.1 As supervised institutions seek to engage in
crypto-asset-related activities, it is important that the agencies provide coordinated and timely
clarity where appropriate to promote safety and soundness, consumer protection, and compliance
with applicable laws and regulations, including anti-money laundering and illicit finance statutes
and rules.
To that end, the agencies recently conducted a series of interagency “policy sprints” focused on
crypto-assets. Similar to a “tech sprint” model, agency staff with various backgrounds and
relevant subject matter expertise conducted preliminary analysis on various issues regarding
crypto-assets. This joint statement summarizes the work undertaken during the policy sprints and
provides a roadmap of future planned work.
Agency staff focused on quickly advancing and building on the agencies’ combined knowledge
and understanding related to banking organizations’ potential involvement in crypto-asset-related
activities. The focus of the sprint work included:
• Developing a commonly understood vocabulary using consistent terms regarding the use
of crypto-assets by banking organizations.
• Identifying and assessing key risks, including those related to safety and soundness,
consumer protection, and compliance, and considering legal permissibility related to
potential crypto-asset activities conducted by banking organizations.2
• Analyzing the applicability of existing regulations and guidance and identifying areas
that may benefit from additional clarification.
To place the sprint work in context, staff reviewed and analyzed a number of crypto-asset
activities in which banking organizations may be interested in engaging including:
• Crypto-asset custody.
• Facilitation of customer purchases and sales of crypto-assets.
• Loans collateralized by crypto-assets.
• Activities involving payments, including stablecoins
• Activities that may result in the holding of crypto-assets on a banking organization’s
balance sheet.
Based on this preliminary and foundational staff-level work, the agencies have identified a
number of areas where additional public clarity is warranted. As a result, the agencies have
developed a crypto-asset roadmap that is summarized below.
Throughout 2022, the agencies plan to provide greater clarity on whether certain activities
related to crypto-assets conducted by banking organizations are legally permissible, and
expectations for safety and soundness, consumer protection, and compliance with existing laws
and regulations related to:
• Crypto-asset safekeeping and traditional custody services.3
• Ancillary custody services.4
• Facilitation of customer purchases and sales of crypto-assets.
• Loans collateralized by crypto-assets.
• Issuance and distribution of stablecoins.
• Activities involving the holding of crypto-assets on balance sheet.
The agencies also will evaluate the application of bank capital and liquidity standards to crypto-
assets for activities involving U.S. banking organizations and will continue to engage with the
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision on its consultative process in this area.
The agencies continue to monitor developments in crypto-assets and may address other issues as
the market evolves. Further, the agencies will continue to engage and collaborate with other
relevant authorities, as appropriate, on issues arising from activities involving crypto-assets.
—
Content may appear first or exclusively on the Mace News premium service. For real-time delivery contact tony@macenews.com. Twitter headlines @macenewsmacro.