SEC's Paul Munter Discusses Exemptions to Digital Asset Custody Rules

Binance News · 2024-09-13T19:43:46.000Z

According to Cointelegraph, during a speech on Sept. 9, Paul Munter, chief accountant for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), appeared to reconsider the SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin-121 (SAB-121) measures that limit banks from providing digital asset custody services to clients. Munter outlined exemption criteria that would allow bank holding companies and introducing brokers to bypass the custody provisions laid out in SAB-121. Banks can avoid the SAB-121 reporting requirements if they receive written permission from state regulators, custody client assets in a “bankruptcy remote” manner, outline clear standards in contracts, and conduct regular risk assessments. Introducing brokers can also exempt themselves from the SAB-121 requirements by meeting three criteria: they cannot possess client private keys, cannot be third parties in the transaction, and cannot be agents of the introducing broker. Additionally, the introducing broker must obtain a legal opinion attesting to its status as an exempt introducing broker of digital assets. Thorn explained that these exemptions would “carve out a giant portion” of entities initially subject to the reporting requirements introduced by SAB-121. However, large national banks—which are under the control of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)—likely won’t be able to qualify under the SAB-121 exemptions and likely still have to appeal directly to the SEC if they want relief. Despite these limitations for large, nationally-chartered banks, the Galaxy head of research ultimately concluded that the easing of the SAB-121 provisions was a positive development for the crypto industry and the adoption of digital assets. In a statement to Cointelegraph, Thorn explained, “It’s possible that the SEC never intended that SAB-121 would apply to banks.” He further explained that as banks became interested, the full scope of the accounting standard became obvious, leading to significant pushback on the SEC. But having dug in its heels over the years, it became politically difficult for the SEC to adjust its posture. These measures may also have been introduced “punitively” to target the cryptocurrency industry and digital asset markets, Thorn opined. The SEC first introduced SAB-121 in 2022 and began to face mounting pressure from US lawmakers to repeal the regulations by February 2024. In May, the United States House of Representatives elected to overturn the SEC’s SAB-121 reporting rules by 46 votes. However, President Joe Biden vetoed the repeal, claiming that repealing SAB-121 would have undermined the SEC's effectiveness as a financial regulator.

據 Cointelegraph 報道，美國證券交易委員會（SEC）首席會計師 Paul Munter 在 9 月 9 日的一次演講中似乎重新考慮了 SEC 的《員工會計公告 121》（SAB-121）措施，該措施限制銀行向客戶提供數字資產託管服務。Munter 概述了豁免標準，允許銀行控股公司和介紹經紀人繞過 SAB-121 中規定的託管條款。
如果銀行獲得州監管機構的書面許可、以“破產隔離”的方式保管客戶資產、在合同中列出明確標準並定期進行風險評估，則可以避免 SAB-121 報告要求。介紹經紀人也可以通過滿足三個標準來免除 SAB-121 要求：他們不能擁有客戶私鑰、不能是交易中的第三方、不能是介紹經紀人的代理人。此外，介紹經紀人必須獲得法律意見，證明其作爲數字資產豁免介紹經紀人的地位。
Thorn 解釋說，這些豁免將“排除很大一部分”最初受 SAB-121 引入的報告要求約束的實體。然而，受貨​​幣監理署 (OCC) 控制的大型國家銀行可能無法滿足 SAB-121 豁免條件，如果它們想要獲得豁免，可能仍必須直接向 SEC 提出上訴。儘管大型國家特許銀行存在這些限制，但 Galaxy 研究主管最終得出結論，放寬 SAB-121 規定對加密行業和數字資產的採用是一個積極的發展。
Thorn 在給 Cointelegraph 的一份聲明中解釋道：“SEC 可能從未打算將 SAB-121 應用於銀行。”他進一步解釋說，隨着銀行的興趣越來越濃厚，會計準則的全部範圍也變得顯而易見，導致 SEC 面臨巨大阻力。但多年來，SEC 一直固守立場，因此在政治上很難調整其立場。Thorn 認爲，這些措施也可能是“懲罰性”出臺的，目的是針對加密貨幣行業和數字資產市場。
SEC 於 2022 年首次推出 SAB-121，並開始面臨美國立法者越來越大的壓力，要求其在 2024 年 2 月之前廢除該法規。今年 5 月，美國衆議院以 46 票推翻了 SEC 的 SAB-121 報告規則。然而，總統喬·拜登否決了廢除該法案，聲稱廢除 SAB-121 將削弱 SEC 作爲金融監管機構的效力。

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