The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) recentlyproposed a policy on state-level regulation of virtual currencies, for which ithas invited public comment. This follows closely on the heels of New York’sDepartment of Financial Services conducting a similar exercise. PaymentsLaw Advisor identifies the key difference between the two proposals:
“Unlike the New York Bitlicenseproposal, which mandates a separate licensing regime for companies engaged incertain virtual currency activities, the Policy recognizes that existing statebanking and money transmission licensing laws may already be sufficient toprotect consumers who put their trust in hosted wallet providers and virtualcurrency exchanges. One of the primary criticisms of the New York proposal wasthat it was duplicative of New York’s existing money transmission regulations,and might require certain cryptocurrency companies to apply for and maintain twoseparate licenses.”
Here at the Mercator AdvisoryGroup, we believe that 2015 will prove to be a watershed year for theregulation of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. New York’s revisedframework is set to be released, and other major states, such as California andTexas, are expected to follow, no doubt building on the proposal made by theCSBS. We look forward to providing a comprehensive analysis of this emergingregulatory landscape to the subscribers of our research.
Overview by Nikhil Jospeh, Analyst, Emerging Technologies for Mercator Advisory Group
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