Bitcoin a risk of profit says Bank – Trustnodes
“The use of new alternative payment platforms, such as Apple Pay or Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, may change consumer credit card behavior and consequently affect our interchange fee revenues.”
So says Horizon Bancorp, which offers a wide range of banking services through its banking subsidiary, Horizon Bank.
They have $7.9 billion in assets and $5.9 billion in deposits with this regional bank being the first to explicitly state that bitcoin is a risk to their profits.
“The growing use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and/or stablecoins and the potential impact these alternative currencies may have on deposit mediation and payment system revenues,” is one of the “risks, uncertainties and factors that could cause Horizon’s actual results to vary materially, ” says the bank, as well as:
“Potential loss of fee income, including interchange fees, as new and emerging alternative payment platforms (e.g. Apple Pay or Bitcoin) take a greater market share of payment systems.”
Of course, the bank’s loss is the public’s gain as they benefit from lower fees or diversification of deposit risk, but some regulators are reportedly cracking down on this market competition and innovation that benefits taxpayers.
Barney Frank, the former congressman and architect of the landmark Dodd-Frank banking regulations who also sits on the board of Signature bank, which was closed last week by the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS), accuses the latter of closing the bank. bank for no good reason as it was not insolvent but to send a crypto message.
“Why did they react so strongly to what they said was our failure to provide them with sufficient data? I think it was probably to send the message that even though we were doing crypto things responsibly, they don’t want banks doing crypto .”
DFS has denied the accusation, claiming there was a “crisis of confidence in the bank’s management”, but if the bank was indeed solvent, it raises questions about closing in.
Additionally, the Horizon bank admission now provides final evidence of bias, which lawmakers and elected officials will hopefully keep in mind as they lobby, both through the media and privately, against what they see as their competitor: crypto.
However, when it comes to bankers as individuals, the story has been changing and significant, with many of them embracing the new frontier.
Yet some bankers, such as Jamie Dimon or Warren Buffet, remain viciously biased against the entire crypto space, with some regulators too often not bothering to hide their bias.
A bias not unlike that of Blockbusters against Netflix, with here again lower fees, diversification of risk and other features, including easy global access, benefiting the public.
