G20 Nations Eye Collaboration to Regulate Crypto

The world’s 20 biggest economies are considering whether they could jointly regulate cryptocurrencies.

India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, whose country is this year’s head of the Group of 20 (G20), told reporters Saturday (Feb. 11) that because of the sophisticated technologies involved in crypto, countries must discuss whether a given regulation is necessary.

“We are talking to all nations, that if it requires regulation, then one country alone cannot do anything,” said Sitharaman, whose comments were reported by Reuters.

“We are talking with all nations, if we can make some standard operating procedure which is followed by everyone to make a regulatory framework, and if it can be effective.”

India is set to host finance ministers and central bank governors from the G20 nations later this month, the report said.

Sitharaman’s comments came in the midst of numerous calls for greater regulation and oversight of the crypto sector from all over the world.

For example, Federal Reserve Board Governor Christopher Waller said last week that banks need to approach crypto customers in the “safe and sound” manner they would use for any other customer.

“As with any customer in any industry, a bank engaging with crypto customers would have to be very clear about the customers’ business models, risk-management systems and corporate governance structures to ensure that the bank is not left holding the bag if there is a crypto meltdown,” Waller said at Global Interdependence Center conference on decentralized finance.

Banks considering engaging in activities connected to cryptocurrency must also meet their know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) requirements, he added.

In addition, the Biden administration has recently put out a roadmap for the crypto sector and urged Congress to move faster in handing down new rules for the industry.

“Congress needs to step up its efforts,” the roadmap said, with White House officials calling on legislators to “expand regulators’ powers to prevent misuses of customers’ assets.”

Meanwhile, it’s getting harder for crypto businesses to gain access to traditional banking services, PYMNTS wrote last week, as up-and-coming banks that based their business models on catering to the industry are now easing off after steep losses.

Custodia Bank, a new institution launched to specialize in digital asset payment and custody solutions for U.S. commercial customers, and which is not yet in operation, recently had its U.S. Federal Reserve membership application denied.

And Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, temporarily suspended U.S. dollar bank transfers last week, a move that observers speculated was tied to the exchange’s difficulty getting access to banking services.