American Banks Encouraged To Partner with Cryptocurrency Firms

A recent from the ABA (American Bankers Association) suggests that banks partner with cryptocurrency firms due to the growing client interest and profit in the sector. This 20-pages report provides a detailed analysis of the crypto, including a glossary. It also maps cryptocurrency activities to the bank services and products. The Banker’s association also suggests crypto use cases for the banking sector with regulatory issues and revenue models to the use case.

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The report has four distinct categories of crypto-assets: CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency), Cryptocurrencies, Non-Fungible Tokens, and Stablecoins. There was also a mention of Defi (Decentralized Finance).

Cryptocurrency Use Cases and Regulations

According to the report, some of the use cases of crypto in the banking sector include;

• Store of value- Banks can earn revenue by facilitating crypto buying & selling on their platforms.
• Custody/Wallet Providers- Banks can offer digital wallets and charge service fees for them.
• Interest Bearing Accounts –Banks can earn a fee on interest through facilitating lending operations to investors.
• Lending –Banks can offer cryptocurrency loans to clients and charge a fee for it
• Payments- Banks can charge fees like what happens to credit or debit cards
• Broker-dealer-Banks can collect spread from crypto assets transaction and earn revenue
• Exchange Trading- Banks can raise revenue from transaction fees, deposit fees, listing charges, etc.
• Network Utility- Banks can offer utility tokens and earn revenue for creating & selling them.
• Insurance- Banks can raise insurance premiums by spreading risks to diverse investors.
• Asset Management-Banks can charge a fee on the crypto portfolio management for clients.

Another aspect of the report is surrounding crypto regulations. It focused on requirements around the sale or offering of crypto, tax reporting, and money transmission. According to the report, the SEC regulated the sale of cryptocurrency.

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For every money transmission, the FinCEN regulates it and requires operators to register for the MSB and MTL, Money Services Business, and Money Transmitter Licenses. But tax reporting lies on the table of the IRS. However, it also pointed out that there is no clarity on crypto regulations yet. According to the report, such unclear regulations can create disparate or unclear requirements. There was also a mention of DeFi, gamification, and many environmental issues as the risks of the cryptocurrency industry.

What Can Be The Way Forward?

According to the report, banks are very much interested in the crypto industry. They aim to identify the opportunities to offer exposure to these assets for their clients. Presently, the growing client interest in crypto pushes the banks to research ways to provide cryptocurrency products. There was also a reference to the NYDIG survey that revealed that 80% of BTC would transfer their asset to banks.

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As the report finds, the way forward is that banks should partner with cryptocurrency companies and accept their customers as clients. On the other hand, banks will access payments systems to onboard fiat deposits and offload them. The report also went further to suggest partnerships that may work between the two sectors.

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