Another area in which a reset is sorely needed is the agency’s approach to digital assets and tokenization. In 2021, the banking agencies issued a roadmap describing plans to publish various policy documents in 2022 detailing the agencies’ expectations for banks engaging in activities related to digital assets. Ultimately, this work was discontinued in early 2022 following a change in leadership at the FDIC, and instead the agencies established processes in which each institution must engage with its regulator on an individual basis before engaging in any activities related to digital assets or blockchain.

Closely related to the agencies’ recent approach to digital assets is the problem of “debanking.” Over the past few years, there have been various accounts of individuals and businesses associated with the crypto industry losing access to bank accounts without explanation. This follows a long history of other types of customers experiencing the problem of debanking, including the politically disfavored business groups targeted by the original “Operation Choke Point,” individuals associated with certain religious or political groups, and many others.

Access to a bank account is essential for individuals and businesses to participate in many aspects of the modern economy. A longstanding goal of the FDIC’s has been to decrease the number of people who are unbanked. Efforts to debank law-abiding customers are unacceptable, regulators must work to end it, and there is no place at the FDIC for anyone who has pushed — explicitly or implicitly — banks to stop serving law-abiding customers.