FDIC Denies Report Bank Buyers Must Sign Divestment of Cryptocurrency

The FDIC denied that it would require any purchaser of a bank to sign up to give up its cryptocurrency activities.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) responded on Wednesday Reuters report which said that “any purchaser of the signature must agree to give up all cryptocurrency work at the bank,” citing two unnamed sources. An FDIC spokesman denied this to Reuters.

An FDIC spokesperson said in an email that “the receivership does not end until all of the bank’s assets have been sold and all claims against the bank have been addressed, and the buyer has decided on the terms of its offer.”

Citing the agency’s decision handbook, the spokesperson said the acquirer would tell the FDIC “what assets and liabilities of the failing bank it is willing to assume.” As a CoinDesk spokesperson pointed to two joint statements published by the FDIC, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve, One of which states that banks They are neither “banned nor discouraged” from providing services to any sector.

Reuters reports that an FDIC spokesperson told the news service that “the agency will not seek divestments from crypto activities as part of any sale.”

The signature was seized over the weekend by the New York Department of Financial Services and turned over to the FDIC. while Signature Board Member Barney Frank (of the Dodd-Frank Act) Claiming it was a political move, possibly due to anti-crypto sentiment, a NYDFS spokesperson said in a statement that the regulator had lost faith in the bank’s leadership following the bank’s run last Friday and a lack of “reliable” information over the weekend.

Reuters reports that the FDIC is now eyeing an auction of Signature and Silicon Valley Bank – another bank that was seized by a government regulator last week – possibly by the end of this week.

Update (March 17, 2023, 01:35 UTC): Shows schedule, adds links.