On January 25, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) issued an investor advisory “to raise awareness about decentralized finance (DeFi), a relatively new blockchain-based group of financial services gaining popularity[.]” The OFR defines DeFi as “financial services provided by an algorithm on a blockchain, without a traditional financial services company.” The advisory describes DeFi,
On January 25, the House Committee on Financial Services announced its hearing schedule for the month of February, which includes a full committee hearing on February 8 at 10:00 a.m. ET on “Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets’ Report on Stablecoins.”
As previously discussed by our colleagues,
On November 1, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG), along with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, issued a “Report on Stablecoins” (Report) that provided background on stablecoins, identified regulatory gaps related to such digital assets, and offered recommendations for addressing those gaps. After outlining
On January 18, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) conditionally approved an application by Social Finance Inc. (SoFi) to acquire Golden Pacific Bank, National Association, so long as the new bank does “not engage in any crypto-asset activities or services.”
SoFi’s application allows for the creation of SoFi Bank, National Association (SoFi
In a January 10 report titled, “Virtual Currencies: Additional Information Could Improve Federal Agency Efforts to Counter Human and Drug Trafficking,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified virtual currency kiosks as one reason driving an increase in the use of crypto payments to facilitate illegal activities, such as human and drug trafficking. According to the
On January 10, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an alert about a new cryptocurrency payment scam involving impersonators convincing consumers to send money obtained from a cryptocurrency automated teller machine (ATM) via a quick response (QR) code.
According to the FTC, this is a new twist on scammers pretending to be someone a person
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Chairman Jelena McWilliams announced at the October 25 Money 20/20 conference that the FDIC is currently working with the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to develop a series of policy statements aimed at addressing engagement in activities involving cryptocurrency assets. Those policy statements are expected
The California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) went into effect on January 1. The CCFPL requires the Department of Financial Protection & Innovation (DFPI), formerly the Department of Business Oversight, to establish an Office of Financial Technology Innovation (OFTI). The DFPI stated in its recent monthly bulletin that OFTI would allow it to “work proactively
In a recently filed Form 10-K, PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PayPal) announced that it received a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on January 21 “related to Venmo’s unauthorized funds transfers and collections processes, and related matters.” PayPal owns and operates Venmo as part of its digital wallet portfolio.
While
According to a recent announcement, Mastercard will begin providing customers with additional details about their purchases, such as the merchant’s name, logo, and location of purchase. Mastercard is inviting merchants to upload their logos to Ethoca, after which the logos will be linked to the corresponding transaction in digital banking applications. The service