Authorities around the world have moved to encourage the use of digital payments in response to Covid-19. Some of these measures facilitate the use of digital payments during lockdown, while others provide longer-term support for fintech players and financial innovation more broadly. For emerging market and developing economies, the measures respond to the unexpected opportunity to further promote financial inclusion objectives through the use of technology. To increase their effect, these moves should include measures to combat financial crime and protect consumers.
Avanti Financial Group Announces Accelerated Charter Application
The Wyoming Division of Banking accepted crypto-centric Avanti Financial Group’s application for a bank charter, paving the way to a chartering decision in October. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently allowed national banks to provide crypto custody services. However, according to Avanti’s Caitlin Long the 49 other states do not have Wyoming’s comprehensive legal structure for enabling digital asset custody without significant legal risk.
Avanti also announced the Avit stablecoin, which supposedly offers more legal certainty than existing stablecoins because it will be issued under existing U.S. commercial laws. Avit will be programmable via Avanti’s application programming interface (API). It is designed for use by institutional traders and corporate treasurers U.S. dollar payment settlement solutions do not suffer from the delayed settlement and chargeback issues of traditional payment solutions, or the legal, accounting and tax issues of stablecoins.