'We Need to Allow Banks' to Hold Bitcoin: FDIC Chair

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FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams says her goal on an interagency team is to create a way for banks to be able to custody crypto assets. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chair Jelena McWilliams, one of the country's top financial regulators, believes it's time to allow banks to hold cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, for themselves and their clients.

"I think that we need to allow banks in this space, while appropriately managing and mitigating risk," she said in an interview with Reuters at the Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas.
McWilliams' comments come as an interagency team comprised of staff at the FDIC, the Federal Reserve, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) look to wrap up their work on coordinating cryptocurrency policies for U.S. banks.

"My goal in this interagency group is to basically provide a path for banks to be able to act as a custodian of these assets, use crypto assets, digital assets as some form of collateral," McWilliams said at the event. She indicated that the group will look at rules for holding crypto on their balance sheets, something public companies such as Tesla and Microstrategy are already doing.more