NY Senate Allows Regulator to Charge Crypto Companies a Fee

The New York State Senate is upping the efforts from the Department of Financial Services to help oversee cryptocurrency, Coindesk said.

The Senate passed its fiscal year 2023 budget early on Saturday (April 9), which included a provision tasking NYDFS with developing a new charge for crypto companies it oversees, to bring its oversight mandate in virtual currencies to match how traditional banks are treated.

The assessments are meant to “defray” the agency’s operating expenses, and will reportedly only cover expenses tied directly to the oversight of crypto companies.

“The expenses of every examination of the affairs of any person regulated pursuant to this chapter that engages in virtual currency business activity shall be borne and paid by the regulated person so examined, but the superintendent, with the approval of the comptroller, may in the superintendent’s discretion for good cause shown remit such charges,” the text of the budget said.

Adrienne Harris, the NYDFS superintendent, said the intent of the budget was to help the state’s economy and “create a stronger New York.”

She said the budget comes with a “new authority to collect supervisory costs from licensed virtual currency businesses, like the department already does for banking and insurance companies.”

She added that New York had been the first to start licensing and supervising virtual currency companies, continuing to draw in more licenses and the biggest haul of crypto startup funding of any state in the country.

The report notes that the new budget provisions would take effect in two months.

See also: IMF Study Finds Corrupt Countries Use More Crypto, Argues for Crackdown

PYMNTS wrote that the countries that have more corruption also usually have more people making use of crypto, according to a recent study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The study surveyed thousands of people in 55 countries, and found that the countries with strong capital controls making it harder to transfer money abroad also have more crypto users.

This, according to a study, found that crypto assets are likely used to move illegal money around the globe.