As authorities hesitate, Commonwealth Bank suspends its bitcoin exchange experiment
Once legal ambiguity is resolved, Commonwealth Bank of Australia CEO Matt Comyn believes his firm will push on with the copilot of bitcoin products via its application.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has placed the possibility of a second virtual currency pilot scheme on hold for the moment, restricting access to individuals who participated in the first round of trials.
CBA handed Cointelegraph a copy of a Tuesday banking conference in which CEO Matt Comyn stated that legislative clarification was still pending. He also stated that he was “collaborating with a variety of authorities on the correct medication of this specific product,” as one might expect.
“At this point, our objective is to continue the trial, and there are some things we need to iron out on the legal front to make absolutely sure that’s the best option.”
Comyn stated that a Treasury filing for the program is now being reviewed, but he did not provide an estimated date of completion.
Although the copilot programme was already being placed on hold by April when financial institutions objected to allowing traditional bank customers quick access to bitcoin, Comyn added that this week’s fluctuation looked to confirm the necessity for the prolonged postponement. Safeguards were missing from the CBA’s products, according to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).
“It is certainly a very unstable industry with a tremendous lot of excitement,” he remarked.
“But, despite that instability and knowledge, and, I suppose, the magnitude, you can see there is a surge of attention from authorities and others wondering about the right way of governing it,” says chevalier.
Comyn also implied that the institution was watching for the outcome of Saturday’s National election. If a new administration takes control, it might make a large difference to the blockchain policy environment, which Comyn believes “will be a priority for the new administration to consider.”
Dr Dimitrios Salampasis, a management and entrepreneurial professor at Swinburne University, told The Associated press that CBA may be moving cautiously to avoid bad publicity.
“Trying to balance risk, brand image, and legal certainty will be crucial to limit interruption in CBA’s current economic model,” Dr Slampasis stated, related to the current price slump throughout the bitcoin market led to the failure of Terra (LUNA).
Last November, the CBA became Australia’s first financial institution to provide cryptocurrency operations through its smartphone app. The trial program offered accessibility to the app’s 6.5 million active users once it was completely implemented. Those projects are currently on hold longer.
