On Thursday, December 15, 2022, the New York Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) released a letter (the “Guidance”) outlining the pre-approval application and evaluation process for New York regulated banking organizations that seek to engage in new or significantly different virtual currency-related activities, including virtual currency business activity.  While conceptually similar to the approach federal banking regulators have taken in…

As we approach the end of the year, here are the Top 10 posts on the Debevoise Fintech Blog in 2022. If you are not already a Blog subscriber, click here to sign up. How Will Bankruptcy Courts Measure Customer Crypto Claims? October 10, 2022 In the wake of the industry’s significant bankruptcy filings, crypto watchers are focusing for the…

On December 14, 2022, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) introduced the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2022 (the “Act”). According to the statement announcing the Act, the legislation is intended to mitigate the risks that digital assets pose to U.S. national security by bringing the digital asset ecosystem into greater compliance with the anti-money laundering and…

On December 8, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) Division of Corporation Finance (the “Division”) released a sample comment letter (the “Letter”) regarding recent developments in crypto asset markets.  In its review of disclosure documents, the Division may issue a tailored form of the Letter to a public company or other entity with SEC filing obligations, asking it to…

On November 9, 2022, the New York Department of Financial Services (the “NYDFS”) announced the publication of the official proposed amendments to its 2017 Cybersecurity Regulation 23 NYCRR 500 (the “Proposed Amendments”). The 60-day public comment period to the Proposed Amendments ends on January 9, 2023. Debevoise’s Data Blog provided their initial thoughts on the Proposed Amendments in a blog post, and then held a webcast…

In a Bloomberg article originally published October 12, 2022, Courtney M. Dankworth, Jehan Patterson and Zila R. Acosta-Grimes caution financial technology companies that recent actions by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau signal it intends to take an expansive view of its jurisdiction. They offer several steps fintechs can take to prepare for this extra scrutiny. The article, “Why Fintechs Should…

On October 3, 2022, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (“FSOC”) released a report and accompanying Fact Sheet on Digital Asset Financial Stability Risks and Regulation (the “Report”). The Report comes in response to Executive Order 14067, which outlined a “whole-of-government” approach to crypto-asset policy and directed FSOC “to produce a report outlining the specific financial stability risks and regulatory gaps…

In the wake of the industry’s recent significant bankruptcy filings, crypto watchers are focusing for the first time on which crypto-entities are eligible for chapter 11 relief[1] under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”)[2] and, if so, whether and under what circumstances,  crypto-assets held by the debtor may become property of the debtor’s “estate.”[3]  As previously posted, if a…

On September 28, 2022, several industry groups representing banks and other entities subject to regulation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, including the United States Chamber of Commerce, filed suit against the CFPB over the agency’s controversial updates last spring to its supervision manual.  Those updates indicated the CFPB’s intent to examine financial institutions for potential discrimination under its authority…

The Federal Reserve Board (“FRB”) has approved final guidelines (“Final Guidelines”) for Federal Reserve Banks (“Reserve Banks”) to use in evaluating requests for master accounts and access to Reserve Bank financial services (“Fed Accounts and Services”).[1]  The Final Guidelines reflect the comments to and development of two prior proposed guidelines: (i) the initial proposed guidelines, issued on May 11, 2021;…