Federal Crypto Powers
Although the OCC joined other agencies issuing a non-committal “roadmap” for future cryptography actions, the agency at the same time and far more decisively stated that crypto activities are permissible only if they are also safe and sound. As a result, national banks and federal savings associations (FSAs) may no longer simply undertake approved crypto activities and now instead must receive prior OCC consent to do so. This may prove challenging to banks now using or seeking to use national charters for their own businesses, for partnerships with state-chartered entities, or via their own fintech ventures.