Following the publication of a report by the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on FinTech innovation in March, six blockchain businesses and advocacy groups have submitted public comments that shed light on how they’re hoping to inform and influence the regulator’s future activity in the sector.
While positive about the OCC’s action to better understand the industry, the majority of the respondents used the forum to advocate for the regulator to create a national licensing regime that would ease barriers to entry for startups. Industry representatives argued that what is needed is an approach that allows startups to bypass the state-by-state licensing process that they say is discouraging domestic innovation.
Such an argument was put forth in various forms by industry participants as diverse as bitcoin exchange Coinbase , bitcoin payments app Circle , industry advocacy group Coin Center and distributed ledger startup Ripple in comments that have now been made public.
Ryan Zagone, director of regulatory relations at Ripple, wrote: "Our regulatory regime lacks an efficient national licensing option designed for companies with national or global reach. This gap limits the ability for these companies to grow in the US. In many cases, they relocate or focus their growth in countries with more efficient licensing regimes." Jerry Brito, executive director at Coin Center, and John Beccia, CCO of bitcoin startup Circle, built on this idea in his remarks, wherein they advocated that the OCC create a new “federal alternative” to state money transmission regulation.
"We believe a new charter at the federal level could lead to a race to the top and innovation among regulators at the federal and state level," Beccia wrote .
Elsewhere, respondents suggested the OCC set up a task force or innovation office to work more directly with the FinTech industry, so it can better […]
