Skip to content

Exception Tracking Spreadsheet (TicklerTrax™)
Downloaded by more than 1,000 bankers. Free Excel spreadsheet to help you track missing and expiring documents for credit and loans, deposits, trusts, and more. Visualize your exception data in interactive charts and graphs. Provided by bank technology vendor, AccuSystems. Download TicklerTrax for free.

Click Now!


Agencies' statement on crypto-asset initiatives

A Joint Statement on Crypto-Asset Policy Sprint Initiative and Next Steps was issued yesterday by the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC to summarize their interagency "policy sprints" focused on crypto-assets and provide a roadmap of future work related to crypto-assets.. The statement describes the focus of the preliminary work conducted through the sprints undertaken by the agencies. It summarizes the agencies' plan to provide greater clarity throughout 2022 on whether certain crypto-related activities conducted by banking organizations are legally permissible, and related expectations for safety and soundness, consumer protection, and compliance with existing law and regulations. The emerging crypto-asset sector presents potential opportunities and risks to banking organizations, their customers, and the overall financial system. The interagency sprints quickly advanced and built on agencies' combined knowledge, which helped identify and assess key issues related to potential crypto-asset activities conducted by banking organizations. 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.
  • 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.

During 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.
  • Ancillary custody services.
  • 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.

Related links:

Filed under: 

Training View All

Penalties View All

Search Top Stories