Bank for International Settlements (BIS)

On June 11, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published a public consultation on preliminary proposals for the prudential treatment of banks’ exposures to cryptoassets. Comments on the proposals will be received until Friday, September 10, 2021, and may be submitted to BIS by clicking here. It should also be noted that all comments will be public unless confidentiality is explicitly requested.

The entity clarified that the proposals divide cryptoassets into two large groups: those that can be handled according to the current Basel Framework, which determines the global standards for prudential regulation of banks, and considers assets and stablecoins. On the other hand, there are cryptoassets, such as bitcoin, which are subject to a more conservative treatment as they are considered to constitute “additional risks”.

Finally, from the BIS they noted that although banks’ exposures to cryptoassets are currently limited, “the continued growth and innovation of cryptoassets and related services, coupled with increased interest from some banks, could increase global financial stability concerns and risks to the banking system in the absence of specific prudential treatment.” For this reason, they expect to conduct additional consultations for the development of policies for cryptoasset exposures.