US Treasury Comptroller Open To Licensing Crypto Businesses
The US Treasury Department comptroller said he is open to licensing cryptocurrency businesses, but cautioned that such certification is a long process.
Keith Noreika, who is serving as the acting comptroller for the agency that supervises all national banks, made his remarks at an event held Thursday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. In his remarks, he noted that companies may be granted “FinTech charters,” a form of license that would ease cross-state payments.
Money lending companies – both in fiat currency and cryptocurrency – have to deal with a complicated set of regulatory issues that differ in all 50 states. Such regulations limit growth by raising the cost of market entry.
“I wouldn’t be adverse to those people coming in and talking to the (office) about how a charter could make sense for them,” said Noreika. “But that is a long process they’d have to go through, and just because you get in the door doesn’t mean you’re going to get out the door on the other side.”
Noreika has inherited a plan proposed by his predecessor to create a single federal option for money transmitter licensing.
“I don’t think it’s my position as a government official to ever say ‘no’ to anything, or any idea, of any American who wants to come in and petition the government for a benefit from the government.”
