The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) recently denied reports that it will require any purchaser of Signature Bank to divest its cryptocurrency activities.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that “any buyer of Signature must agree to give up all the crypto business at the bank,” citing two unnamed sources. However, an FDIC spokesperson denied this to Reuters.
In an email, the FDIC spokesperson stated that “the receivership does not end until all the bank’s assets are sold and all the claims against the bank are addressed, and the acquirer decides the conditions of their bid.”
This means that the acquirer will have the final say on what assets and liabilities they will take from the failed bank. The spokesperson cited the agency’s resolution handbook and referred CoinDesk to two joint statements published by the FDIC, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Reserve, stating that banks are “neither prohibited nor discouraged” from providing services to any sector.
Signature Bank was seized over the weekend by the New York Department of Financial Services and turned over to the FDIC.
Although Signature board member Barney Frank claimed it was a political move, possibly caused by an anti-crypto sentiment, a NYDFS spokesperson said in a statement that the regulator had lost confidence in the bank’s leadership after a bank run last Friday and a lack of “reliable” information over the weekend.
The FDIC is now looking to auction Signature and Silicon Valley Bank – another bank seized by a state regulator last week – possibly by the end of this week, according to Reuters.
