Today was a busy day for financial regulatory policy. In the morning, the Department of the Treasury released its long-awaited report on nonbank financials, fintech, and innovation. A few hours later, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced that it will start taking applications for…
Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that credit card provider American Express’ long-standing policy of including anti-“steering” clauses in its contracts with merchants was not anti-competitive. Steering is the practice whereby merchants discourage customers from paying with comparably high-cost cards like Amex and to use Visa or Mastercard…
Should cryptocurrencies be regulated like securities? Financial regulators have been pondering this question for some time. In a Briefing Paper published today by the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, I suggest that securities regulation would only seem warranted in certain clearly circumscribed cases. For…
As if central banks' powers and balance sheets haven't grown quite enough since the outbreak of the subprime crisis, we've been hearing more and more calls for them to expand their role in retail payments, by supplying digital money directly to the general public. Some proposals would…
When the New York Attorney General launched an inquiry into cryptocurrency exchanges last week, his office cited “significant volatility, instability, and risk” as motivating factors for the probe. This echoes statements by International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde and Agustín Carstens of the Bank for International Settlements….