The National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions’ (NAFCU) Digital Assets Working Group recently conducted its first session, discussing credit union exploration of digital assets and related technologies.
The panel assessed President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets, which has been described as an order directing varied agencies to investigate the risks and benefits of digital assets via a series of reports due in September 2022; the Federal Reserve’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) discussion paper and request for comment; and NAFCU’s Digital Assets issue brief detailing the regulatory environment surrounding the early stages of digital assets’ integration into the broader economy.
The Digital Assets Working Group also addressed the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) letter to credit unions in December 2021 issued to provide clarity on the authority of credit unions to establish relationships with third-party providers offering digital asset services to federally-insured credit union (FICU) members.
The NAFCU indicated it would continually engage Congress, the Treasury Department, the NCUA, and other federal financial regulators with an eye toward calling for credit unions to be provided the ability to engage digital assets on equal footing with banks.