On the “Annual Oversight of Wall Road Corporations” listening to earlier than the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and City Affairs on Dec. 6, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) questioned financial institution CEOs about illicit monetary actions involving cryptocurrencies as a part of a broader effort to advance regulatory laws. Current on the listening to had been the CEOs of JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and extra.
Senator Warren used her time to direct consideration to the usage of cryptocurrencies for illicit finance. Warren cited estimates that $20 billion in crypto transactions final yr funded prison organizations and rogue regimes. She referred to as for updating legal guidelines in order that anti-money laundering rules cowl cryptocurrencies like conventional banking.
Cryptocurrency, she declared, “is the brand new method right this moment’s terrorists bypass the Financial institution Secrecy Act.” She quoted alarming statistics, similar to an estimated $20 billion in illicit crypto transactions final yr that funded varied harmful prison actions. She elaborated:
“Now legal guidelines clearly must be up to date, however crypto lobbyists are working time beyond regulation to dam any laws. They declare crypto is particular, and it shouldn’t need to adjust to the Financial institution Secrecy Act, even when which means letting terrorists and drug traffickers and ransomware criminals and rogue nations transfer billions of {dollars}. Completely unrestricted.”
Quite than calling for crypto bans, Sen. Warren referred to as for barring the usage of crypto by prison organizations, terrorists, and rogue nation-states. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, nevertheless, went additional, agreeing that the predominant use case for cryptocurrencies is presently amongst “criminals, drug traffickers, anti-money laundering [violations], tax avoidance.”
Dimon took probably the most hardline stance of the day. Whereas conceding that the nameless nature of crypto transfers was not fairly correct, he drew consideration to the flexibility of a crypto community to maneuver giant quantities of cash wherever instantaneously with out shifting previous any regulatory checkpoints:
“You possibly can transfer cash instantaneously as a result of it doesn’t undergo, as you talked about, all these techniques we’ve got constructed up over a few years—know-your-customer, sanctions, OFAC; it may well bypass all of that. I if I [were] the federal government, I’d shut it down.”
In addressing these issues, Senator Warren advocated for extending anti-money laundering guidelines to cryptocurrencies. The time for Congress to behave is now, she urged, highlighting the need of stopping terrorist assaults or rogue nations’ packages from being financed via unregulated crypto transactions.
Guidelines and rules
Though the CEOs unanimously agreed that cryptocurrencies ought to be subjected to the identical anti-money laundering guidelines as conventional banks, they voiced constant pushback towards perceived overregulation in their very own trade.
The dialogue on cryptocurrencies was a part of a broader listening to on monetary rules. The financial institution CEOs warned lawmakers in regards to the potential financial impression of the proposed new rules. They expressed issues in regards to the proposed “Basel Endgame III” rule and others, citing fears that these rules might impede lending, hurt small companies, and adversely impression the broader economic system.
Whereas these banking giants are pushing again towards what they understand as onerous rules, there’s a unanimous settlement amongst them for the necessity for cryptocurrencies to fall beneath anti-money laundering guidelines. Of their view, this can be a vital step in direction of stopping the misuse of those digital property for illicit actions in a uncommon second of settlement between banks and their regulators.
