Federal bank regulatory agencies – including the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency – issued a joint statement on their work related to crypto-assets.
The statement describes the focus of the preliminary work conducted through the “policy sprints” that the agencies have undertaken. Similar to a “tech sprint” model, these policy sprints involved agency staff conducting preliminary analysis on various issues regarding crypto-assets. The sprints 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 analyzing the applicability of existing regulations and guidance and identifying areas that may benefit from additional clarification.
Based on this foundational staff-level work, the agencies are developing a crypto-asset roadmap to provide greater clarity on whether certain activities related to crypto-assets conducted by banking organizations are legally permissible. The roadmap will address several topics, including 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; and activities involving the holding of crypto-assets on a balance sheet.
In addition, agencies also will evaluate the application of bank capital and liquidity standards to crypto-assets for activities involving U.S. banking organizations. Also, they will continue to engage with the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision on its consultative process in this area. Further, the agencies will continue to engage and collaborate with other relevant authorities, as appropriate, on issues arising from activities involving crypto-assets.