The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has denied reports that any purchaser of Signature Bank would be required to divest their crypto activities.
According to a Reuters report citing unnamed sources, “any buyer of Signature must agree to give up all the crypto business at the bank.”
However, an FDIC spokesperson has denied this claim, stating that the acquirer will decide the conditions of their bid, and that the FDIC would not require divestment of crypto activities as part of any sale.
In response to questions regarding the sale of Signature Bank, the FDIC spokesperson explained that the receivership does not end until all the bank’s assets are sold and all the claims against the bank are addressed.
The acquirer will then determine which assets and liabilities they are willing to take on. The spokesperson referred to the FDIC’s resolution handbook, which outlines the process for bank sales.
The FDIC, along with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve, have jointly stated that banks are “neither prohibited nor discouraged” from providing services to any sector. This includes the crypto industry, which has seen a surge of interest from traditional financial institutions in recent years.
Signature Bank was seized by the New York Department of Financial Services and turned over to the FDIC over the weekend.
While some have speculated that the move was politically motivated, a spokesperson for the regulator stated that the bank’s leadership had lost the regulator’s confidence following a bank run and a lack of reliable information over the weekend.
The FDIC is now looking to auction off both Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank, which was also seized by a state regulator last week, possibly by the end of this week.
