The vice president of the FDIC urged a better digital asset policy to maintain U.S. influence

According to Travis Hill, vice chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), bank customers and the U.S. economy could lose opportunities if blockchain technology is not regulated in the right way. According to Hill, the tokenization of bank deposits and other real-world assets (RWAs) can make it possible to conduct financial transactions that are settled in real-time at any time. In addition, it will provide programmability of payments, which will allow for intraday repurchase (REPO) transactions and shorten settlement times for certain bond issuances and many others. Consumers can also benefit from using programmable payments instead of escrow. Hill noted that global standards are being established, directly or indirectly, and with many non-US jurisdictions actively involved in this area, the US is at risk of relinquishing influence at this critical stage. Hill said regulators need to provide guidance and maintain consistency so that deposits of any kind are treated equally. He criticized the US SEC’s controversial Employee Accounting Bulletin 121 (SAB 121), which requires financial institutions to treat cryptoassets differently from any other type of asset. He said the definition of crypto assets used in the announcement was too broad and even included tokenized RWAs.