FSB figure: it’s time to regulate crypto
A senior figure from the US Financial Stability Board (FSB) has told finance ministers from around the world to improve their crypto regulation approaches.
Randal K. Quarles, who serves both as the Chair of the FSB and as a Governor at and Vice Chairman for Supervision of the country’s Federal Reserve central bank, made the remarks in a letter.
The letter was distributed to finance ministers and governors of central banks in the G20, or Group of 20, powerful countries around the globe.
The message, which was dated February 18th 2020, contained a number of serious comments and concerns about the state of crypto regulation.
In one paragraph, Quarles appeared to suggest that “market fragmentation” was a real risk at the moment due to a range of pressures being exerted on the finance world.
“Technology is changing the nature of traditional finance; the non-bank sector has grown, and requires deeper understanding and coordination among the supervisory and regulatory community,” he said.
“Pressures that can lead to market fragmentation exist. Concurrently, important supervisory and regulatory issues require attention.”
And elsewhere, he touched on the issue of stablecoins – and how time was of the essence.
“FSB members recognize the speed of innovation in the area of digital payments, including so-called ‘stablecoins,’” he said.
Quarles also provided an update on the way in which the Financial Stability Board would go about doing its bit to regulate crypto and certain aspects of it in particular, including stablecoins.
He said that the Board would “quicken the pace of developing the necessary the regulatory and the supervisory responses to these new instruments.”
Regulators double up to target firm
Two US regulators have issued lawsuits against a foreign exchange firm which they accuse of fraud.
Both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said that they would issue a lawsuit against Winston Reed Investments LLC (WRI) and also against its vice president and investment consultant, who has been named as Mark Pyatt.
Pyatt is also known as Daniel Randolph.
It is alleged that he claimed to have been a forex trader with a strong track record. However, it was later revealed that this was a lie and that he had in fact apparently suffered financial losses of his own.
He then later allegedly went on to lose funds provided by other participants.
He also allegedly said that he was able to net huge profits on behalf of clients which were between 19% and 86% of original investments.
And, according to the allegations, Pyatt and his company went on to blow large amounts of cash which had been presented to them by investors on their own spending.
It is believed that $150,000 was lost in this way.
Overall, Pyatt and his company are set to be told that they must provide restitution to those who were defrauded – and trading bans are also expected to be on the way.