On January 4, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency published an interpretive letter clarifying that national banks and federal savings associations may engage in and facilitate payment activities through new technological means, including serving as a node in a distributed ledger system such as those utilized by some stablecoins, facilitating customer conversion of fiat currency to or from digital currencies, and issuing stablecoins.
The Letter reasons that payment services are a core banking function, and that independent node verification networks and stablecoins are merely new means of effecting pre-existing permissible bank activities.
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