Originally Published: February 17, 2022 Update: February 22, 2022 Last week, in a speech at the U.S Monetary Policy Forum in New York, FRB Governor Lael Brainard continued to tout the potential of a CBDC in the U.S. digital payment infrastructure, while also highlighting potential risks. Though the topics she discussed reiterated key issues, Governor Brainard highlighted a number of topics…
On February 8, 2022, the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services (“HFS”) hosted a virtual hearing entitled, “Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets’ Report on Stablecoins.” The hearing focused on the Report on Stablecoins, which are crypto-assets pegged to real assets (usually the U.S. dollar), that the President’s Working Group on Financial…
One of the biggest regulatory barriers facing cryptocurrency and fintech companies is inconsistency across regimes. In September 2021, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (“CSBS”) attempted to remove one of these barriers, the lack of uniformity in money transmission regulation, with its Money Transmission Modernization Act (the “CSBS Act”). Money transmitters are currently regulated separately under state and federal law.…
Although the policy outlook remains uncertain, more policymakers are encouraging bank-like regulation for stablecoin issuers. Following on the November 2021 stablecoin report (the “Stablecoin Report”) issued by the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which recommended new stablecoin legislation, Congressional Democrats, led by House Financial…
On February 2, 2022, Luke Dembosky, the Co-Chair of the Debevoise Data Strategy & Security Group, participated in a fireside chat with Justin Herring, the Executive Deputy Superintendent for the Cybersecurity Division of the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), and Sachin Bansal, the Chief Business & Legal Officer at SecurityScorecard, which organized the event. The discussion covered…
On February 1, 2022, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) opened registration for their “Digital Identity Tech Sprint,” with a focus on digital identity proofing. Registration will close on February 15, 2022 at 5 p.m. As the FDIC and FinCEN recognize, digital technology plays an important role in both remotely delivered financial services…
The Banking Group of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP would like to welcome you to its newest client tool, the Debevoise Fintech Blog. The goal of the blog is to help financial institutions sift through this complex legal landscape and keep abreast of developments in fintech and digital assets. The blog will cover topics spanning the fintech and digital assets regulatory…
As the digital asset industry continues to grow, regulators also have grown more and more active in the space. In addition, with cryptocurrency and payments as one of the main use cases for digital assets thus far, it is no surprise that regulators have devoted significant attention to those facilitating transactions in cryptocurrencies and the issue of whether such facilitators…
With Congress back in session following its winter recess, we expect an increasing focus on crypto-asset businesses, especially stablecoins, which are digital assets that are pegged to real assets — usually the U.S. dollar. Stablecoins have experienced incredible growth and expansion recently. The aggregate stablecoin supply grew by 388% in 2021, from $29 billion to over $140 billion, a record…
The inter-agency crypto-asset policy sprint initiative has finally taken off. This morning the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively, “the Agencies”) issued their first joint statement (the “Statement”) summarizing progress on a series of crypto-asset[1] policy sprints and revealing next steps. The Statement is a continuation of an…