Central Banks To Set New Crypto Standards For Banks-BIS

From January 1, 2025, banks will be allowed to hold 2% of their reserves in cryptocurrency.
New crypto standards on banks by January 2025.
The Group of Twenty Nations on crypto regulations.

On December 16, 2022, Bank for International Settlements (BIS) released the Prudential Treatment of Crypto Asset exposure report. The committee agreed to implement new crypto standards for banks by January 2025.

The oversight body of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) Group of Central Bank Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS) gave a conclusion on prudential standards on the bank’s crypto asset exposures and strategic priorities for 2023-24. The central bank governors of the G10 countries in 1974 founded BCBS.

Tiff Macklem, Chairman of the GHOS and Governor of the Bank of Canada, said, “Today’s endorsement by the GHOS marks an important milestone in developing a global regulatory baseline for mitigating risks to banks from crypto assets. It is important to continue to monitor bank-related developments in crypto asset markets.”

The report permits banks to hold 2% of their reserves in cryptocurrency from January 1, 2025. After considering feedback from stakeholders, the committee finalized the introduction of the policy by 2025. In June, BIS only permitted a few banks to hold 1% reserves in the crypto industry.

The committee classified cryptocurrencies into two different groups: Tokenized traditional assets and crypto assets with effective stabilization mechanisms come under Group 1. Meanwhile, all unbacked crypto assets are in Group 2. And the total exposure limit of Group 2 crypto assets must be less than 1%.

Basel Committee Two Year (2023-24) Strategic Priorities

Digitalization of Finance
Monitoring of existing standards
Implementation and evaluation
The financial damage caused by climate

To avoid another major collapse like that of FTX and Terraform Labs, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), an international organization that monitors financial systems globally, has reportedly stated that the firm will introduce new crypto regulations next year.

Dietrich Domanski, the outgoing secretary-general of the FSB, explained, “many crypto market participants argue that authorities are hostile to innovation. I would say so far, authorities have been fairly accommodating.”

G20 Countries On Crypto Regulations

India hosted the first G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies meeting under Indian presidency in Bengaluru in Southern India. Deputies from G20 member countries, including 160 foreign delegates and International Organisations, were present at the meeting. In this meeting, the member countries revealed a plan for cryptocurrency regulations. The Group of Twenty nations decided to implement a new policy on digital assets.