The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, has allowed national banks and federal savings associations to use public blockchains and stablecoins for settlement on behalf of customers.
Federally Chartered Banks and Thrifts May Participate in Independent Node Verification Networks and Use Stablecoins for Payment Activities https://t.co/0XzA0fHHI0
— OCC (@USOCC) January 5, 2021
The OCC has allowed banks to run nodes of public blockchains, validate, record and settle payments that comply with applicable law, and to issue their own stablecoins.
As Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire noted, this equates public blockchains with the SWIFT system, automated clearing houses (ACH) and the FedWire payments network.
4/ Decentralized, permissionless, open source and internet mediated software is literally becoming the foundation for not just the US financial system but for the global economy.
— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) January 4, 2021
Last year the OCC allowed banks to hold collateral backing stablecoins and keys to cryptocurrency wallets on behalf of customers.
The agency is led by former Coinbase executive Brian Brooks. In Congress, Brooks’s approach to cryptocurrencies has already been criticised, and the main opponent of the initiative was Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
OCC allowed banks to issue stablecoins by ForkLog on Scribd
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