Several financial institutions and payment corporations have responded to the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) recent statement "Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" over offering custodian services for crypto-related assets.
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The US-based banks, including Axos Bank, PNC Bank, and U.S. Bancorp, asked the OCC and its regulatory counterparts to "clarify the supervisory requirements and expectations for services conducted on distributed ledger technology."
Axos Bank Executive Vice President, Chief Governance, Risk, and Compliance Officer John Tolla, said the OCC "should promote the exploration of new products, services, technologies, and even FinTech third party partnerships through iterative innovation."
"Any new regulations should start with a clear statement that the OCC supports digital service innovation, and that no enforcement action shall be initiated in the event of a technology failure absent reckless or intentional consumer harm," Tolla added.
Earlier, the US government bureau that regulates national financial institutions and federal savings associations published a letter in which clarified its position on providing cryptocurrency custody services from banks.
According to the letter, the regulator understands there is "a growing demand" for safe places, including banks, to hold unique cryptographic keys associated with cryptocurrencies on behalf of customers and to provide related custody services.
As national banks can offer custody services for physical assets they are also allowed to provide the same services for digital assets, the OCC added.
Meanwhile, the New York State Department of Financial Services approved 10 new tokens for custody as well as 8 for sale and trade.
The financial regulator also approved the custody of all these currencies as well as of XRP and ethereum classic (ETC) in spite of the fact that the latter has recently hit headlines after suffering several 51% attacks in few weeks.
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