This week, the U.K. government introduced the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which would amend banking regulations to include stablecoins as a new payment method. The bill will also pave the way for the Treasury to issue new crypto rules. In the U.S., lawmakers are also pushing for new stablecoin regulation that could come as early as next week. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) may be considering new requirements for banks to reimburse victims of scams and fraud. Additionally, the bureau extended the deadline for comments in the credit card late fee rulemaking consultation to receive more data.
Crypto
Lawmaker: Stablecoin Bill Could Bypass Regulators
A member of the House Financial Services Committee said lawmakers could overrule U.S. regulators who want stablecoins to be governed solely by banks. As Coindesk reported Monday (July 18), Democrats on the committee have been working on rules for stablecoins that might be as stringent as the Treasury Department and financial regulators had hoped.
The bill could create a path for nonbank firms to become government-approved stablecoin issuers, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., a senior member of the committee and one of its subcommittee chairmen but who isn’t working directly on the legislation, told Coindesk.
Treasury Department: Banks’ CBDC Fears Are Overblown
Banks’ fears that a digital dollar would cost them depositors — and even make financial crises more severe — are overblown, according to a new Treasury Department report.
Actually, a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) could strengthen financial stability, according to the Office of Financial Research (OFR).
SEC Seeks Funding to Take On Crypto Issues
The director of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement division told a House subcommittee Tuesday (July 19) that he needs more people to handle the agency’s cryptocurrency actions — after nearly doubling the size of the unit in May.
SEC Director of Enforcement Gurbir Grewal told the House Financial Services Subcommittee that enforcement actions against crypto companies are straining his resources, even though he hired 20 new positions — lawyers, investigators and analysts — to increase the staff of the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit to 50.
US House Panel Aims to Move Stablecoin Bill by Next Week
A U.S. House committee could pass down proposed rules regulating stablecoins as soon as next week, including regulations on whether commercial companies could issue the coins.
The current draft of the bill would make it so stablecoin issuers would have to keep 100% reserves, and it would stop them from lending the coins to customers, Bloomberg reported Wednesday (July 20). Under the legislation, their names would also change to “payment stablecoins.”
U.K.’s Financial Services Bill Will Make Stablecoins a Form of Payment
Stablecoins may soon be part of the monetary system in the U.K. if the new Financial Services and Markets Bill is approved in Parliament.
The U.K. government introduced yesterday, July 20, a bill in the parliament that will modify existing banking regulations to include stablecoins and other crypto assets, denominated in the law as Digital Settlement Assets (DSA), as part of the U.K. payment system.
Big Tech, Data Privacy
UK Court Sends Meta Giphy Case Back to Antitrust Watchdog
Meta’s purchase of the GIF search engine Giphy will be sent back to the U.K. antitrust regulator for a further review after a court flagged concerns with the agency’s initial investigation.
The ruling, made public Monday (July 18), comes after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked the Facebook parent company’s acquisition of Giphy last year, due to concerns that it would hurt competitiveness in the market for display advertising and in the provision of gifs on Meta’s social media platforms.
Google Faces $1B Suit in UK Over App Store Practices
Google is facing trial in a $1.1 billion class-action lawsuit in the U.K. over claims that the company overcharged 19.5 million customers for app store purchases.
As Reuters reported Tuesday (July 19), the suit alleged Google abused its position by charging users commissions of up to 30% on apps such as Candy Crush and Tinder.
UK Goes for Light Touch AI Regulations; While EU Doubles Down
The U.K. government on Monday (July 18) presented its plan to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) in the country. Like the European Union, the U.K. adopted a risk-based approach, where only the high-risk activities will be regulated, leaving the low-risk ones unsupervised to foster innovation.
The main difference between the two approaches is that the U.K. is not proposing a specific AI bill with one central authority to regulate the use of the technology like the EU. Instead, the U.K. is relying on a group of regulators to enforce the new AI principles.
Payments
Banks Tell CFPB No Card Late Fee Data Unless Rulemaking Deadline Extended
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was forced to extend the deadline to submit comments on its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) about credit card late fees to be able to receive more feedback from stakeholders.
On June 22, the CFPB took its first step to change the regulation affecting credit card fees. It published an ANPR seeking data about credit card fees and late payments. The bureau gave 30 days for stakeholders to reply, until July 22, but by July 21 only 13 responses were received, none of which provided information that would allow the agency to design new rules. The new deadline to send comments is Aug. 2.
CFPB Wants Banks to Pay Back Victims Scammed Using Zelle, Other P2P Services
Victims of scams involving Zelle and other peer-to-peer (P2P) money transfer services could be getting new assistance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) by way of proposed increased requirements on banks.
Banks could be asked to pay back more customers who are the victims of these scams and face new requirements surrounding fraudulent activity that has become more common on these platforms, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Tuesday (July 19) citing unnamed sources.
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