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Speaker says OCC clarified banks may provide certain crypto services with risk controls
Summary
An unidentified speaker said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency clarified that national banks and federal savings associations may provide crypto asset custody, hold deposits backing stablecoins, and use distributed ledger technology and stablecoins for payments, provided they adopt appropriate risk management.
An unidentified speaker said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently clarified that national banks and federal savings associations may lawfully offer certain crypto-related services if they maintain appropriate risk-management processes.
The speaker noted the scale of demand for such services, saying, "Today, more than 50,000,000 people own cryptocurrency, and hundreds of businesses engage in cryptocurrency and require banking services," and argued that "national banks and federal savings associations are well positioned to support crypto asset activities from within the federally regulated banking sector." The speaker described specific activities the OCC has said are permissible: "crypto asset custody, holding deposits as reserve backing stable coins, and using distributed ledger technology and stable coins for payment activities are all legally permissible." The speaker directed listeners to the OCC website for the text of the guidance.
The speaker also emphasized the regulator's conditions, saying, "The OCC also confirmed its expectation that banks conducting novel crypto activities do so with appropriate risk management processes in place." The speaker characterized the guidance as reducing regulatory burden and "encourag[ing] responsible innovation," enabling banks "to leverage new technology and innovative ways to serve their clients and customers."
No motions or formal votes were recorded in the transcript. The statement in the transcript is an account of the OCC's recent clarification as described by the speaker; the article does not assert any legal conclusion beyond what the speaker reported. The OCC's published guidance should be consulted for authoritative regulatory text and implementation details.
