However, this field is still largely unregulated, and some financial experts believe that the lack of regulation (or agreement on it) impedes the wider adoption of the new asset class.
One of them is Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), who shared his thoughts on the subject with Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi in an interview published on May 26.
When asked about his company’s plans for digital currencies, Moynihan said:
“The reality is that we run a payments business across our platform. It’s trillions of dollars a day, and almost all of it is digital. If you think about the blockchain, we have hundreds of patents on blockchain as a process and as a tool and as a technology.”
Banks ‘not allowed’ to engage in cryptocurrency transactions
That said, he emphasised the main issue preventing the bank from opening crypto accounts for clients:
“We’re not allowed to, frankly. Because we’re regulated and they [regulators] have said you can’t. They’ve said, ‘you have to ask us before you do it and, by the way, don’t ask’ — was basically the tone.”
He added:
“The reality is that we can’t do it by regulation. We’re not really allowed to engage.”
However, according to Moynihan, the Bank of America’s research team is already working on introducing crypto operations once the regulatory framework is in place, stating: “On the trading side, we could do it.”
