The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the United States government corporation that insures depositors at U.S. commercial and savings banks, issued a financial institution letter Thursday. The letter requests the institutions supervised by the agency to notify the appropriate regional director of their activities with crypto-related assets or their intentions to engage in crypto-related activities. According to the letter, “It is difficult for institutions, as well as the FDIC, to adequately assess the safety and soundness, financial stability, and consumer protection implications without considering each crypto-related activity on an individual basis.” Consequently, the FDIC wants to receive all information necessary for …

The Swedish central bank’s digital currency project, a proposed CBDC known as the e-krona, has successfully finished its second phase of trials. According to Riksbank, the nation's central bank, the asset is now technically ready to be integrated into banking networks and to facilitate transactions. During the second phase of the e-krona pilot project — which began in February 2021 — the CBDC was investigated on the matter of its technical ability to function within the country’s existing digital banking infrastructure. Participating banks included Handelsbanken and Tietoevry. The report indicated that the e-krona could indeed be successfully exchanged for fiat …

Global banking giant HSBC Holdings has rolled out its metaverse investment product for wealthy clients in Singapore and Hong Kong, according to multiple media reports. Called Metaverse Discretionary Strategy portfolio, the new product is managed by HSBC’s asset management arm, HSBC Asset Management. The fund aims to provide high net worth professional investors and accredited investor clients with exposure to new investment opportunities in the metaverse industry. According to a Wednesday report by Reuters, HSBC’s metaverse fund will focus on investment within five major segments in the metaverse ecosystem, including infrastructure, computing, virtualization, experience and interface. “We see many exciting …

Italy’s second-largest bank UniCredit and the Bitcoin (BTC) mining farm Bitminer Factory have faced each other in the Bosnian city Banja Luka court, which decided that the bank improperly closed the company’s account and must compensate €131 million (about $144 million) to the plaintiff. As reported in La Repubblica on March 27, the court of Banja Luka held that a Bosnian branch of UniCredit didn’t have legitimate reasons to freeze the operations of Bitminer Factory Gradiska LLC’s account. The Bitminer Factory estimated its losses at €131 million, asserting that the closure of its accounts had “hindered its initial coin offering …

Austria has been actively transforming into an attractive location for providers of blockchain-based products, with the government itself experimenting with the technology and trying to create a legal basis upon which companies can use it. With regard to blockchain-based applications in the economy, however, Austria is still in the experimental phase, with most firms still running pilot projects. Still, politicians and economists alike see potential for select industries. Public administration reform via blockchain The Austrian government is quite open to blockchain innovations, cryptocurrencies aside, and has supported various projects in the public and private sectors. In 2019, a consortium of …

The Central Bank of Jamacia recently announced that it would be launching its central bank digital currency (CBDC), dubbed the Jamaican Digital Exchange, or Jam-Dex, in the first quarter of 2022. According to the Jamaican government, the national digital currency will help to lower transaction costs while allowing the unbanked to access financial services. It is estimated that over 17% of Jamaicans are unbanked, but it is feared that many more are underbanked. This is largely due to systemic financial sector impediments. High transaction costs, in particular, are a huge limitation. Consequently, many Jamaicans believe that banks are a preserve …

Leumi Bank, one of the largest lenders in Israel, reportedly started to accept Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) trading. According to a Thursday report by Reuters, Pepper Invest, Leumi's digital platform, partnered with blockchain infrastructure provider Paxos to launch crypto trading. Pepper Invest clients can now buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies using the new service. The move will only support BTC and ETH before adding support for other crypto assets. In addition, the minimum transaction value for cryptocurrencies was set at around $15.50 (50 shekels), as per the report. There is currently no start date announced, and the new move …

The Bank of England Financial Policy Committee and other U.K. regulators are assessing crypto regulation after publishing reports on financial stability relating to cryptoassets and decentralized finance. The BoE report was released on Thursday, and the Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, along with the Bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority, or PRA, also released documents simultaneously that all reference one another. The Bank’s committee, or FPC, stated in its 40-page report that cryptoassets and DeFi pose a “limited” risk to the stability of the UK financial system, but it saw that risk growing “as these assets become more interconnected with the wider …

The governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, announced in February that the state government plans to allow residents to pay taxes in cryptocurrencies as early as the summer of 2022. To some experts, the move is both legitimizing for the crypto asset class and was expected to come in due time. In an interview, Polis said crypto holders in Colorado could have the option of sending tax payments in digital currency, with the state converting the funds back into fiat as soon as the payments were received through an unnamed intermediary. Colorado is already a leader in Crypto with our first …

Big 4 bank ANZ has become the first Australian bank to mint an Australia dollar (AUD) pegged stablecoin named “A$DC.” But rival bank NAB also has its own stablecoin project which is expected to launch by the end of the year. ANZ is working with local regulators such as AUSTRAC and APRA to get the project signed off in a compliant manner, and has already run a test transaction on the Ethereum blockchain with its institutional partner Victor Smorgon Group, the family office tied to the billionaire Smorgon family. According to a March 24 report from the Australian Financial Review …

Cowen, a major American independent investment bank, has officially launched a dedicated cryptocurrency and digital asset division. Called Cowen Digital, Cowen’s new business is designed to offer full-service trade execution and custody for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets for institutional investors, the firm announced on Wednesday. In order to launch the new crypto division, Cowen has collaborated with PolySign’s cold storage-focused subsidiary, Standard Custody and Trust Company. The bank is also a client of Digital Prime Technologies, a brokerage solution-focused firm providing business and compliance services, the announcement notes. Cowen initially announced plans to move into the …

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) recommended that the nation’s commercial banks ramp up monitoring users’ transactions that could be aimed at circumventing CBR’s “special economic measures to counter the outflow of foreign currency abroad,” local media reported on March 17. The recommendation includes closer oversight over crypto trading, which is named among the vehicles for withdrawing capital from Russia. The letter, sent to the banking organizations by CBR’s vice chairman Yuri Isaev on March 16, directs them to pay closer attention to the instances of their clients’ “unusual behavior.” This includes “abnormal” transactional activity and uncommon expenditures patterns. Any …