Cryptocurrencies Pose Risks to Banks, Warns Basel Committee

[cybersofts]

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, a group of international banking authorities, has warned that the growth of cryptocurrencies poses a number of risks to banks and global financial stability.

The committee – part of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), widely considered the central bank of central banks – published a statement on Wednesday, saying that potential risks for banks include liquidity, credit and market risks, operational risk (including fraud and cyber risks), money laundering and terrorist financing risk, and legal and reputational risks.

Although banks currently have “very limited” direct exposure to cryptocurrencies, institutions should still “at a minimum” carry out extensive due diligence and disclose any exposure to crypto assets to minimize the risks, the committee said.

Banks should further have a “clear and robust” risk management framework to deal with the “high degree” of risk posed by cryptocurrencies.

The risk management framework should be “fully integrated” into banks’ overall risks management processes, including those relating to anti-money laundering (AML), combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) and evasion of sanctions, the committee said.

A “comprehensive” assessment of the risks should be incorporated into their internal capital and liquidity adequacy assessment processes, it added.

Additionally, supervisory bodies should be informed of actual or planned cryptocurrency exposure, along with an assurance that the institution has fully assessed and mitigated the risks.

Finally, the committee said that it is working with other global standard-setting bodies and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to arrive at guidance on “prudential treatment” of banks’ exposure to cryptocurrencies in order to “appropriately” reflect the risks.

Last June, BIS said in its Annual Economic Report that it’s hard to see if cryptocurrencies solve any specific economic problem yet. “Transactions are slow and costly, prone to congestion, and cannot scale with demand,” it said at the time.


Reference: https://www.coindesk.com/https-www-coindesk-com-cryptocurrencies-pose-risks-to-banks-and-financial-stability-warns-basel-committee

[1714995265]

1714995265

[1714995265]

1714995265

[1714995265]

1714995265

[Kemarit]

Well this has been discussed and just common sense will tell us that Banks clearly see crypto as their main threat that's why we have seen a lot of attacks from them specially in 2017 when Bitcoin and other crypto suddenly exploded and banks losing big profits from those who decided to switch their funds to crypto. So I'm not surprised by this the results of this so called committees. Obviously, crypto will have not a fair share of optimism coming from those banking elites so this news is not likely affect us.

[ajqjjj]

Useless committee is not recommended to anyone. Because they are all the big whales in crypto community so all the committees are not supporting to cryptocurrency. Banks are centralised and controlled by government person so they stole the money in all the way. But Bitcoin is a decentralised cryptocurrency so completely transparent to everyone. My request do not cheat with peoples  because many uneducated peoples are trust the government policies but they only cheating the peoples emotion.

[carter34]

It is certain that it is not an illusion that banks fear that cryptocurrency is in serious competition with them. Yes, they are both used as method of payment but far from that again, some people use bitcoin and other good altcoin as investment. They withdraw a lot of fiat and convert to crypto, making the banks distablized and run into debt because of lack of fund.

[MakeMoneyBtc]

More and more people start using cryptocurrencies and its obviously that banks have to take action against that since they know in the future bitcoin could potentially be a big threat to them. I think what they want to do is take action early since they know rigtt jow not many people will be against them and the chances of winning are higher. The longer they wait, the worst is for them because bitcoin gets new users and supporters everyday.

[dothebeats]

I can see people shifting from banks to cryptocurrencies in terms of investments, accruing interest with their money over time and money transfers that is cheap, fast and secure, but I guess the banks' strong and safe side that crypto can't match is its ability to lend people some money for their ventures and earn interest off of that. Another thing is that banks are somewhat tied with the government in controlling the economy in which cryptos could not take aid into given its nature. The banks are now coming into their senses that crypto is no longer the tool used for Darkweb purchases and money laundering now that people have realized that it is actually more than that.

[ASHLIUSZ]

More and more people start using cryptocurrencies and its obviously that banks have to take action against that since they know in the future bitcoin could potentially be a big threat to them. I think what they want to do is take action early since they know rigtt jow not many people will be against them and the chances of winning are higher. The longer they wait, the worst is for them because bitcoin gets new users and supporters everyday.

Banks have been making a big change in users life, but what they charge to the users is big in comparison to the cryptocurrency. These days cryptocurrency wallets serve as one's own banking. Quite often committees come forward with some risks and solution. Here is one such, and surely cryptocurrency network will serve as a hard competitor to banking.

[daarul50]

The risk as expressed in the article above is actually nothing new for the world of cryptocurrency, because a number of years ago, the risk was also revealed by various parties. However, this does not pose a threat to crypto, instead it makes crypto stronger and more developed to provide services that can be accepted by the wider community throughout the world. We are not all hate the banking financial system, only we are disappointed with the banking system that is currently being used so we turn to using blockchain technology to enjoy services that we cannot get in the banking system today.

[LeGaulois]

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the group that bother us with banking restrictions, KYC/AML, etc... the same group supposed "lobbying" a reliable financial system.

An alternative currency like Bitcoin can risk the economy maybe, but maybe we need to reset the financial system to get the Bitcoin mass adoption. Imagine, a fresh start with BTC as an INTL. currency.

[Crypdon]

It is a threat to banks because bitcoin is a bank. No need to put your funds into a controlled business that gambled it away and needed tax payer money to rescue them.

[magneto]

Although banks currently have “very limited” direct exposure to cryptocurrencies, institutions should still “at a minimum” carry out extensive due diligence and disclose any exposure to crypto assets to minimize the risks, the committee said.

Banks should further have a “clear and robust” risk management framework to deal with the “high degree” of risk posed by cryptocurrencies.

I think that the title of the article is really, really misleading.

They're not saying that bitcoin will necessarily be threatening the existence of banks or something like that. Rather, all that is being said is the fact that the volatility of a lot of the crypto assets on offer, which banks may be interested in investing, will pose a risk to the solvency or investment portfolio of banks. That's literally all.

However, I disagree with the statement made here:

Last June, BIS said in its Annual Economic Report that it’s hard to see if cryptocurrencies solve any specific economic problem yet. “Transactions are slow and costly, prone to congestion, and cannot scale with demand,” it said at the time.

You can already see increased adoption of bitcoin as a store of value, where fiat has been destabilised in countries such as Venezuela. Bitcoin can also circumvent draconian capital control policies that may prevent people from immigrating overseas, for example. So there are specific usage cases for sure.

[Indrawan77]

We all already know that crypto could be a threat for banking system because all of the features of crypto is contradicting with the banking system, and crypto is something that the bank can't supervise, so there can be a lot of transaction that cant be taxed, so the country could lose its income, so I think the middle way to make crypto being adopted is to regulate it, and balance the usage between fiat and crypto, when crypto being regulated I dont think it could become a threat again

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

That's why the banking institution keep sponsoring the media to spread FUD so the cryptocurrency industry will lose some potential investors that can easily be manipulated based on news. It's no longer a news that the cryptocurrency industry pose a threat to the banking system since they have failed and lost alot of trust from the general public. The best thing now, is for them to accept blockchain technology and help speed up the adoption of the technology because it's the future and it will benefit them more if they make use of the technology for transpiracy and accountability.

[Theb]

Although banks currently have “very limited” direct exposure to cryptocurrencies, institutions should still “at a minimum” carry out extensive due diligence and disclose any exposure to crypto assets to minimize the risks, the committee said.

Did they just admit that they are aware that central banks of countries are involve into investing in cryptocurrencies? This statement alone only tells us that the BIS know something about the central banks' involvement in the cryptocurrency market, which for a long time I myself doubt that governments are confident enough to enter on. Something tells me that future regulations won't really be about precautions or prohibitions in the crypto market but for them to gain the upper hand when it comes to what they are holding. 

[cizatext]

Well I personally like the operational framework as it regarding the risk management from bank the connect with cryptocurrency and I this twill further the regulations of crypto activities in the global financial system. Despite the fact that banks have always been against crypto and have since seen it as a threat to it existence.

[Ranly123]

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, a group of international banking authorities, has warned that the growth of cryptocurrencies poses a number of risks to banks and global financial stability.

The committee – part of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), widely considered the central bank of central banks – published a statement on Wednesday, saying that potential risks for banks include liquidity, credit and market risks, operational risk (including fraud and cyber risks), money laundering and terrorist financing risk, and legal and reputational risks.

Although banks currently have “very limited” direct exposure to cryptocurrencies, institutions should still “at a minimum” carry out extensive due diligence and disclose any exposure to crypto assets to minimize the risks, the committee said.

Banks should further have a “clear and robust” risk management framework to deal with the “high degree” of risk posed by cryptocurrencies.

The risk management framework should be “fully integrated” into banks’ overall risks management processes, including those relating to anti-money laundering (AML), combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) and evasion of sanctions, the committee said.

A “comprehensive” assessment of the risks should be incorporated into their internal capital and liquidity adequacy assessment processes, it added.

Additionally, supervisory bodies should be informed of actual or planned cryptocurrency exposure, along with an assurance that the institution has fully assessed and mitigated the risks.

Finally, the committee said that it is working with other global standard-setting bodies and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to arrive at guidance on “prudential treatment” of banks’ exposure to cryptocurrencies in order to “appropriately” reflect the risks.

Last June, BIS said in its Annual Economic Report that it’s hard to see if cryptocurrencies solve any specific economic problem yet. “Transactions are slow and costly, prone to congestion, and cannot scale with demand,” it said at the time.


Reference: https://www.coindesk.com/https-www-coindesk-com-cryptocurrencies-pose-risks-to-banks-and-financial-stability-warns-basel-committee

They are educating the public about the risk in crypto and not the risk on their business. Yet of course, people will indulge in cryptocurrencies and would definitely defer their input on banks.

[sheenshane]

I have encountered this discussion for almost a thousand times. Technically, Cryptocurrencies are the main threat of central banks because they can't even regulate it and will give them the feeling that they will not be able to centralize financial industry someday because of it. That is why central banks are trying to manipulate the cryptocurrencies as well by lowering it down and destroying their reputation.

[MakeMoneyBtc]

More and more people start using cryptocurrencies and its obviously that banks have to take action against that since they know in the future bitcoin could potentially be a big threat to them. I think what they want to do is take action early since they know rigtt jow not many people will be against them and the chances of winning are higher. The longer they wait, the worst is for them because bitcoin gets new users and supporters everyday.

Banks have been making a big change in users life, but what they charge to the users is big in comparison to the cryptocurrency. These days cryptocurrency wallets serve as one's own banking. Quite often committees come forward with some risks and solution. Here is one such, and surely cryptocurrency network will serve as a hard competitor to banking.

That's right, banks are more useful these days but that's just because more people are using them and right now it is easier to make transactions to different companies as payments. But this has to chance in the future since banks are sometimes corrupt and their fees could be very high depending on what type of transaction you make.

[alisafidel58]

This kind of news has been coming up for these past few years. It nothing new to crypto currency user that has been there form the start. Yeah, it pose risk to them because they are now lacking investor or depositor in their banks.

Banks have been innovating and looking at how they can imply the system of crypto currency at their advantage so that investor and depositor would choice them over crypto currency.

[Kevin77]

Banks do not have to get scared about potential of bitcoin in our world and what it can do to them, banks need to be excited about the potential of bitcoin and blockchain technology and how it could improve them and make them better.

I know there are tons of banks who deal in the shady business world and bitcoin is definitely going to ruin that for sure but any bank that is doing business in a legit way should see bitcoin and blockchain as an improvement to the old system and instead of being afraid of it should adopt it.

If the world is moving towards a new and better system and if you are trying to keep people away from it than all you can do is slow it down, you can't stop it, you can pay politicians billions and make bitcoin illegal all around the world and yet people will still find ways to use it so instead of trying to stop it I would suggest supporting it so you can get behind the economic evolution.