Fintech

Subscribe to Fintech via RSS

On July 14, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) jointly issued a statement addressing the safekeeping of crypto-assets by banking organizations on behalf of their customers. This announcement clarifies how existing laws, regulations, and risk management principles apply to the safekeeping of crypto-assets by banks and does not create any new supervisory expectations. Importantly, the federal banking regulators clearly signal that banks can serve as custodians of digital assets including storing cryptographic keys.

Recently, the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) in California issued a consent order against Coinme Inc., a company operating digital financial asset kiosks, commonly known as Bitcoin ATMs, across the state. This order comes after findings that Coinme violated several provisions of the California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) and the Digital Financial Assets Law (DFAL). Notably, this is the first enforcement action taken under the DFAL and signals that DFPI is focused on trying to prevent scammers from taking advantage of Californians.

Today, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), alongside the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) (collectively, the agencies), with concurrence from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), issued an order granting an exemption from a specific requirement of the Customer Identification Program (CIP) Rule under § 326 of the USA PATRIOT Act. This exemption allows financial institutions to use alternative methods to collect Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), (e.g., Social Security Number, individual taxpayer identification number, or employer identification number) information from third-party sources rather than directly from customers. The order applies to accounts at all entities supervised by the agencies.

On June 24, Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC), Subcommittee on Digital Assets Chair Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) released a set of guiding principles for the development of comprehensive market structure legislation for digital assets. These principles, described in more detail below, aim to provide a foundational framework for discussions and negotiations with industry participants, legal and academic experts, and government stakeholders. This announcement comes on the heels of the House Committees on Agriculture and Financial Services both favorably reporting to the House the CLARITY Act (discussed here), which aims to establish a clear regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States. and the recent passage by the U.S. Senate of the GENIUS Act, a landmark effort to establish a comprehensive federal framework for the payment stablecoins (discussed here).

On June 17, the U.S. Senate voted 68-30 to pass S.1582, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, known as the GENIUS Act (the Act). This represents a landmark effort by the U.S. Congress to establish a comprehensive federal framework for the regulation of payment stablecoins. Passed with bipartisan support in the Senate, the Act aims to provide regulatory clarity, enhance consumer protection, and safeguard national security in the rapidly growing stablecoin sector.

After years of uncertainty and regulation by enforcement, the U.S. may finally be moving toward a more comprehensive framework for the regulation of digital assets. On June 4, 2025, the House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing on American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets: From Blueprint to a Functional Framework. The hearing followed Committee Chairman French Hill’s introduction of H.R. 3633 — the CLARITY Act of 2025 (the Act) — on May 30, 2025. The Committee is expected to continue its markup of the Act at its June 10, 2025, Full Committee Markup hearing.

We are pleased to share with you our latest publication, “Navigating Change: First 100 Days under the Trump Administration,” authored by our Digital Assets + Blockchain team. This retrospective examines the pivotal developments in the digital assets industry during the initial phase of the Trump administration.

In the Spotlight

Troutman Pepper Locke’s Securities Investigations + Enforcement Practice

Our Securities Investigations + Enforcement practice has expanded significantly due to our recent merger, enhancing our capabilities nationwide, including in our San Francisco, Dallas, and New York offices. We counsel and defend clients throughout all stages of securities enforcement proceedings, representing a diverse range of clients, including major financial institutions, senior corporate executives, boards of directors, and various entities in the financial services industry. Our team handles investigations by regulatory bodies such as the SEC, FINRA, and the Department of Justice. Leveraging decades of experience and including former key government officials, we develop informed and effective strategies tailored to each client’s unique needs. To read more about our capabilities, please click here.

James Stevens, co-leader of Troutman Pepper Locke’s Financial Services Industry Group, was quoted in the April 11, 2025 The Financial Brand article, “They’re Back: Fintech Banking Is Suddenly Advancing on Multiple Fronts.”

As written, “it’s a very limited charter,” explains James Stevens, partner and co-leader of the financial services group of Troutman Pepper…

Guest contributors: Ashley Harris, Thomas Scott, and Isabelle Corbett Sterling, BakerHostetler

This is the final article in our three-part series focused on a key question: as bank-fintech partnerships continue to play a vital role in driving financial services, how does the industry make this system safer and better?

In this final part of our series, we propose a DLT-based account ledgering model designed to prevent failures like Synapse while offering broader benefits. Previously, we examined Synapse’s collapse, the misplaced trust in its ledgers, and potential regulatory responses,[1] including concerns about the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) proposed recordkeeping rule (Records NPR).[2]