Congressional Democrats voiced their skepticism Thursday toward a new type of banking charter that would grant some privileges to financial-technology and cryptocurrency companies that national banks enjoy, without subjecting them to the same degree of regulatory oversight.
The policy was administered energetically by Brian Brooks, who served as acting comptroller of the currency for much of last year, and previously served as the chief legal officer at Coinbase COIN, +5.96%, the crypto exchange company that debuted on public markets Wednesday with a market capitalization of more than $65 billion.
Brooks went on to argue that to deny fintech and crypto companies banking charters would actually lead to those companies being less well-regulated and to activity that was once overseen by state and federal regulators to “go on outside their view.” Several Democrats on the committee used the opportunity to express their deep skepticism of cryptocurrencies in general. Rep. Brad Sherman of California took issue with the OCC’s decision in January to grant the San-Francisco based Anchorage Digital Bank conditional approval to become the first federally chartered crypto bank, which seeks to provide custodial services for institutions that invest in crypto assets.