Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will soon be under new leadership, and the senior Republican there, Travis Hill, has outlined some pro-crypto policy thoughts just before he wants to take over — at least on an interim basis, if not as the permanent new chairman.
FDIC Vice Chairman Hill, who is expected to be among those running for the job when President-elect Donald Trump takes office, is calling on the US banking regulator to issue new guidelines for digital assets. He wants to ditch the agency’s current, one-by-one approach to managing banks’ cryptocurrency ties.
“It has stifled innovation and contributed to a public perception that the FDIC is closed to business if institutions are interested in anything related to blockchain or distributed ledger technology,” Hill said in remarks on Jan. 10, which also noted the controversial “pause” letters unearthed by Freedom of Information Act lawsuit with Coinbase Inc. He suggested that these letters illustrated how — in its piecemeal approach to monitoring crypto in the banking system — the agency steered many banks away from digital asset businesses.
“I continue to believe that a much better approach would have been — and remains — for the agencies to clearly and transparently describe to the public what activities are legally permissible and how they are conducted in accordance with safety and soundness standards,” he said. “And if there is a need for regulatory approvals, they must be acted upon in a timely manner, which has not been the case in recent years.”
Hill, who was a Republican appointed to the board two years ago, also criticized the FDIC’s role in pressuring banks to dump crypto clients.
“A long-standing goal of the FDIC has been to reduce the number of people who are unbanked,” he said. “Efforts to debank law-abiding customers are unacceptable, regulators must work to end it, and there is no place at the FDIC for anyone who has pressured — explicitly or implicitly — banks to stop serving law-abiding customers.”
Current longtime chairman Martin Gruenberg has told agency staff he will step down on January 19, the day before Trump’s inauguration. In the absence of a chairman, the deputy chairman steps into this role on an interim basis.
Read More: Citibank Debanked Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse Over Crypto, Says Exec
