US OCC Terminates 2022 Order Targeting Anchorage Digital Over AML

The US Workplace of the Comptroller of the Forex (OCC) mentioned it had issued an order terminating a consent order made in opposition to cryptocurrency custody financial institution Anchorage Digital in 2022.

In a Thursday discover, the OCC said it had dropped the order “to guarantee the protection and soundness” of Anchorage. The monetary regulator’s April 2022 order was based on Anchorage’s “failure to undertake and implement a compliance program” in accordance with Anti-Cash Laundering (AML) requirements. Nevertheless, the OCC mentioned the financial institution’s “compliance with legal guidelines and laws doesn’t require the continued existence of the order.”

“[W]e obtained—and have now resolved—suggestions from regulators as we set the usual for federally-chartered custody of digital belongings,” said Anchorage co-founder and CEO Nathan McCauley in a Thursday weblog submit, including:

“With our consent order lifted, we’ve confirmed definitively that crypto and federal oversight aren’t mutually unique—and might the truth is be stronger working in tandem.”

Anchorage was the primary US-based crypto firm to obtain a nationwide financial institution constitution issued by the OCC in January 2021 underneath former US President Joe Biden. Underneath President Donald Trump, the US Senate confirmed Jonathan Gould, the previous chief authorized officer of Bitfury, to go the regulator in July.

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The dropping of the consent order signaled the US authorities’s softening on crypto enforcement and regulation underneath the Trump administration.

The Federal Reserve said in August it might sundown a program launched particularly to watch banks’ digital asset actions. The OCC, Federal Reserve, and Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Company additionally issued a joint statement in July clarifying the dangers to banks holding digital belongings for shoppers.