The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has been seeking public input on how it regulates new technologies and digital banking activities, including cryptocurrencies and blockchain tools.
In the published notice, OCC was reviewing its regulations around digital bank activities to ensure that these regulations ‘continue to evolve with developments in the industry’. The notice specifically asked what sort of cryptocurrency-related activities banks and other financial institutions are currently engaged in, and what activities customers engage in that impact banks.
Separately from crypto assets specifically, the notice asked about the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in banking activities and asked if there are any specific issues that need to be clarified.
The notice also briefly suggested that the office could issue a national charter for cryptocurrency exchanges, which would essentially allow it to bypass the state-by-state framework that right now requires companies to secure 50 money services business (MSB) registrations to operate nationwide.
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