FDIC chair: US regulators shaping framework for banks’ crypto activities

The chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the United States, Elena McWilliams, at the Money 20/20 conference stated that American regulators are focused on creating “clear guidance” regulating banks’ interactions with the crypto industry.

McWilliams emphasised that her job is to ensure clear rules that allow innovation to flourish while risks are reduced.

“If we do not do this, we risk stifling innovation and depriving America of leadership in the development of world-changing technologies,” she added.

The head of the FDIC noted that her agency, the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, within the U.S. Treasury, are working on this issue.

“The agencies are coordinating measures on how and under what circumstances banks may participate in crypto-asset activity.”

She said that in the coming months regulators will issue a series of relevant policy statements.

During her remarks, McWilliams focused on stablecoins. She expressed the belief that the segment should be the subject of “carefully designed government oversight”. In particular, regulators should monitor the backing of stablecoins by the underlying asset, the operational resilience of issuers and countering money laundering.

In subsequent remarks, Reuters reported that the roadmap being developed by the regulators would include rules regulating the custody of cryptocurrencies for settlement of trades, their use as collateral for loans, and even their addition to balance sheets alongside traditional assets.

Earlier McWilliams stated that more banks in the United States are dealing with digital assets.

According to some reports, the FDIC is examining the possibility of direct deposit insurance in stablecoin-issuing banks.

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