If authorities permit it, the U.S. banking sector would accept cryptocurrency payments, according to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihans on Tuesday.
Given President Donald Trump’s enthusiasm for digital currencies, CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin asked the president of the second-largest U.S. bank by assets how the industry’s approach to crypto could alter.
Moynihan stated in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “You’ll find that the banking system will come in hard on the transactional side of it if the rules come in and make it a real thing that you can actually do business with.”
Although their institutional trading and wealth management divisions have taken part in markets for bitcoin ETFs, American banks have generally refrained from allowing their clients to utilize cryptocurrency for retail transactions. Industry leaders, such as Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, have characterized bitcoin as a currency used by scammers and criminals.
“This would just be another way to pay if you were to come down the street and buy lunch, right?” Moynihan clarified, “if you can pay with a Visa, Mastercard, a debit card, ApplePay, etc. We already have hundreds of blockchain patents, so we know how to get started.
The seasoned CEO of Bank of America said that the concept of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as a store of wealth or an investment is truly a different matter.
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