The proposed rule change by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) will make it easier for cryptocurrency companies to access banking services.
The OCC has proposed regulatory changes that will expand access to banking services for cryptocurrency companies. The proposed change will limit the ability of US banks to deny services to financial service providers if they do not meet the bank’s defined quantitative risk-based criteria.
OCC says it has been trying to implement these changes for a long time. According to the regulator, banks should apply risk assessment to individual businesses, not the entire industry. OCC notes:
“Some banks continue to use category-based risk assessment to deny customers access to financial services.”
The OCC has compiled reports that independent ATM operators, family planning organizations, private prisons, arms dealers and financial services businesses are denied access to financial services. The chief lawyer of the Kraken exchange Marco Santori wrote on Twitter that the OCC list essentially includes cryptocurrency companies.
The new rule, approved by OCC Director Brian Brooks, states that banks must “make every financial service they offer available to all individuals in the geographic marketplace.” Moreover, the bank cannot refuse to provide financial services in order to hinder its competitors, for example, enterprises providing settlement and cash services that carry out currency exchange and money transfers without opening bank accounts.
The regulator accepts comments on the proposal until January 4, 2021. As a reminder, Anchorage recently applied for a federal banking license with the OCC to become a qualified custodian. In September, the OCC allowed US banks to hold collateral for stablecoins, and recently Brian Brooks said that some US banks are considering cooperating with or buying crypto custodians.
