LEGAL EAGLE SPOTLIGHT By Kirstin D. Kanski, Attorney, Spencer Fane LLP The year began with an Executive Order, “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology,” that stated the Trump Administration’s policy to establish the U.S. as a global leader in the responsible growth and innovation of digital assets and related blockchain technologies. As to the banking industry, the Trump Administration’s approach has focused on finding ways to allow the industry to not only service the growing digital ecosystem but also actively participate in its development. In turn, the federal banking regulators have undergone a rapid and significant sea change in approach to the regulatory guidance on the U.S. banking industry’s engagement with digital assets. The industry’s response has varied greatly, from rapid to reticent. At the beginning of the year, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan predicted during an interview with CNBC that if the rules allow it, “you will find the banking system will come in hard on the transactional side of it.”1 The regulators have now clarified and confirmed that the rules allow it, and the industry is responding. In May, following the most recent confirmatory statement of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), JP Morgan Chase publicly announced that it will begin to buy and sell bitcoin on behalf of its customers — accounting for the transactions and holdings The Banking Industry Embraces the Digital Age 10 | The Show-Me Banker Magazine
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