Outlining credit union needs in the digital assets market structure

When it comes to engaging with digital assets, credit unions have several key areas of concern – including parity with other financial institutions.  America’s Credit Unions shared those concerns with the Senate Banking Committee in response to its recent request for information (RFI) soliciting input from industry leaders and representatives on the digital assets issue. The advocacy team provided lawmakers with the credit union perspective on digital assets and priorities.

Those priorities include:

• Parity between credit unions and banks in the digital asset space;
   
• Unambiguous clarification of credit union custodial authorities to support engagement with digital assets and member safekeeping;
   
• Adopting appropriate safeguards to address rehypothecation of digital assets;
   
• Adoption of robust disclosures for originators of digital assets to ensure investors have full picture of the originator’s holdings and interests;
   
• Clear prohibition of stablecoins from possessing yield-bearing features;
   
• Guidelines for managing financial stability risks posed by special purpose institutions;
   
• Ensuring operators of digital assets market infrastructure comply with Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) regulations; and
   
• The need for Congress to encourage federal banking regulators, like the NCUA and CFPB, to take affirmative steps to create and support regulatory sandboxes for testing distributed ledger technology and other digital assets.

America’s Credit Unions is engaging with lawmakers throughout the legislative process to ensure credit unions are able to provide their members with access to digital assets in a fair, accessible, and safe marketplace.