US House financial committee tells SEC they don’t like custody proposal
The chair of the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee and six subcommittee chairs have sent a letter to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Secretary Vanessa Countryman voicing their concerns over the agency’s proposed advisory clients custody rule. They join a string of crypto industry figures in expressing their objections.
Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry and his colleagues wrote that the SEC was exceeding its authority in its proposed rule, known as the registered investment adviser (RIA) rule — which toughens requirements for qualified custodians of client assets.
#NEW: Chairman @PatrickMcHenry, Subcommittee Chairman @RepFrenchHill, and all members of the Committee's Republican leadership team sent a comment letter slamming @SECGov's disastrous custody proposal and demanding its withdrawal. Read more https://t.co/l9rMtwfJUy pic.twitter.com/4rzG5etjON
According to their letter, the proposed rule would apply to assets beyond the agency’s jurisdiction, such as “art, cash, commodities, and nontraditional assets” and impede “the jurisdiction of other regulators by imposing custody rules on entities that already have their custody practices regulated by another regulator.”
Related: US lawmakers hold EU and UK as examples of crypto regulation in joint hearing
The letter claims that the proposal deviates from standard industry practice and would be “incredibly costly” and would “undermine banks’ most basic function, holding cash.” Digital asset market participants would be especially hard hit:
The digital asset market often turns to state-chartered banks and trusts for banking services. The proposed rule’s restriction of qualified custodians to federally chartered
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