- Congressional Democrats have rebuked the acting Comptroller of the Currency’s focus on cryptocurrency and fintech.
- The group wrote a letter to the acting Comptroller of the Currency ( OCC) to complain about his focus on the digital world.
- Progressive Democrats, such as Ayanna Pressley, Stephen Lynch, and Rashida Tlaib, wrote the letter.
Congressional Democrats rebuke crypto
Congressional Democrats have rebuked the acting Comptroller of the Currency’s focus on cryptocurrency and fintech. The group wrote a letter to the acting Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to complain about his focus on the digital world.
Progressive Democrats such as Ayanna Pressley, Stephen Lynch, and Rashida Tlaib. Reps, Barbara Lee, Deb Haaland, and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia signed the letter.
The letter was calling for the OCC to work with Congress to deal with digital problems instead of encouraging them. In the letter, the Democrats pointed to the OCC’s decision to carry their client’s crypto assets and pushed for a cautious approach when carrying out these activities.
A particular focus of the letter was on minority-owned financial institutions who were facing a deposit crisis which has been made worse by the pandemic. They did recognize that holding crypto assets could be beneficial to struggling businesses.
The Congressional Democrats also acknowledged that the OCC’s pro-crypto move could ensure access to banking services increases. A negative side to the crypto debate the group pointed out was that they had not seen the potential benefits.
The letter highlighted that the OCC’s digital banking strategy could harm consumers if the regulation is not thorough. A hope that the group had was for the regulators to ensure that work would be done to protect consumers.
The letter went on to challenge if the digital world’s decisions were appropriate amid covid-19.
