Bank of America Now Considers Crypto a Business Risk




Bank of America has cited cryptocurrency as a material risk to its business, public records show.

The technology could hamper the second-largest U.S. bank's ability to comply with anti-money-laundering regulations, pose a competitive threat and force the company to spend more money to keep up with the times, the bank said in its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Cryptocurrency" is mentioned three times in the annual report, all in the section on risk factors.

The first reference is in the discussion of AML, know-your-customer, sanctions and foreign corruption laws in the U.S.

"Emerging technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, could limit our ability to track the movement of funds," the filing says, explaining further:

    "Our ability to comply with these laws is dependent on our ability to improve detection and reporting capabilities and reduce variation in control processes and oversight accountability."

Competitive threat

Yet perhaps more notable is the acknowledgement that cryptocurrency poses competitive risks to the bank.

In a passage about new competitors in the financial services industry, Bank of America expressed caution about how client preferences could lead them to use products like cryptocurrencies - for which, as it stands, the bank does not offer any support.

Bank of America notes in the filing:

    "Clients may choose to conduct business with other market participants who engage in business or offer products in areas we deem speculative or risky, such as cryptocurrencies."

Indeed, the mention of cryptocurrency as an outside risk is taken one step further, with Bank of America stating that rising adoption would result in it having to dedicate more resources - that is, spending money - to stay competitive.

"[T]he widespread adoption of new technologies, including internet services, cryptocurrencies, and payment systems, could require substantial expenditures to modify or adapt our existing products and services," the bank said.

Bank of America is one of several U.S. banks that recently banned credit card purchases of cryptocurrency. The bank did not restrict crypto purchases using debit cards, however.

Based in Charlotte, N.C., Bank of America is also a prolific filer of patent applications for blockchain technology concepts.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/bank-of-america-cryptocurrency-risk-factor-annual-report-10-k/

I get it. It is like saying they have been in control with the situation prior to Bitcoin's existence in the market. You know what, this is totally hypocrisy. They have not even controlled money laundering and graft and corrupt practices with the traditional fiat system, much more with the innovation brought about by cryptocurrencies. This just buttresses older findings that the world's biggest thieves are those in coats. They should not blame newer inventions for the fault that has been going along for the longest time. It is the PEOPLE and GOVERNMENTS, respectively, that are responsible for what the world has become. The hypocrisy I see is these people want to continue doing the traditional way whilst doing the same crimes, and in fact becoming experts of it. They try to scrap away change because they see it as a threat to what is normal or what is common. They only see things from their own perspective, hence, they see Bitcoin and other cryptos as bullish.

If you come out of that zone you set yourself, you will see how big the world is. We should not confine ourselves to what is normal as presented to us by our governments.

The Bank of America in this sense is acting for itself alone. It obviously just wants to protect its business interests.

bitcoin has already been many years and has already had many increases and low prices without telling you that many critics of many bankers, they left all this time to just come and talk about something that a lot of people who are bankers talk almost every day? and what surprises me more is see these news channels publish such news as if it were something new. News channels should focus on news that is news.


If this is to bring profits to the bank, I do not see why he would not be happy to make such changes