Senator Warren voices support for AML/CFT measures for Stablecoins

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren has reacted to the recent testimony of Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo before the Senate Banking Committee. In the letter forwarded to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, she wrote that she backed Adeyemo’s line of thought about Anti-money laundering and erasing terrorism financing.

Senator Warren backs stablecoins’ regulatory measures

In the letter, Warren highlighted that she was in full support of a legislative bill that would enact more AML/CFT measures for stablecoins. At the hearing, the Deputy Treasury Secretary discussed several proposals from the treasury to extend its powers to sanction blockchain node operators amongst other measures. In the document tagged ‘Letter to Congress’ by Senator Warren, the treasury discussed steps it could take to reach its enforcement goals and plug the gaps in regulation.

In the letter she sent, Senator Warren noted that the proposals highlighted in the letter should be reviewed and adopted into any bill that the Congress wants to pass. She noted that this way, it would help make a regulatory framework for the $157 billion stablecoin market. The Senator was not referring to the stablecoin bill proposed by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis. The stablecoin bill was released a day after the date of her letter and doesn’t address AML/CFT issues.

Legislative proposals and regulatory framework

According to her letter, the bill she referred to is expected to come out of the House of Representatives. The said bill is expected to be authored by Finance Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry and ranking member Maxine Waters. Senator Warren sent them a letter where she discussed the same issues in her recent letter to Janet Yellen. In her letter to the Treasury Secretary, she highlighted the need for stablecoin rules to include all the tools that the Treasury asked for in its letter to Congress.

Senator Warren noted that the tools are very necessary to combat threats of financial terrorism. Digital Chamber Senior Policy associate Taylor Barr said that he would love to see the inputs of Senator Warren on the new Gillibrand and Lummis bill. He noted that her talking points didn’t involve proposals such as consumer protection language, Fed/OCC’s enforcement power, and added receivership text in the bill.