Kraken Financial's receipt of a limited Federal Reserve master account is leading some industry observers to question whether the approval creates a new avenue for master account-seekers or whether it's a preview of the proposed "skinny" account.

Nasdaq announced its partnership with the crypto exchange as part of an initiative for 24/7 trading that is pending regulatory approval from the SEC.

The digital asset company, currently partnered with firms like Morgan Stanley and One Pay, is seeking its own national trust bank charter from the OCC.

JPMorganChase's Alfredo Porretti has left the firm; two junior Goldman Sachs bankers took part in a controversial fashion shoot; Societe Generale appointed Selina Cheung head of equity capital markets in Asia Pacific; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

Romance scams and other "pig butchering" frauds are growing rapidly. Should banks refund the stolen money? Not all agree on the answer to that question.

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman played down the significance of Kraken Financial receiving a master account, saying the central bank is treating it as a pilot program.

Noelle Acheson points out that a wander through stablecoin history highlights an overlooked use case likely to be of interest to financial services providers.

Morgan Stanley wants to get into crypto, and Kraken is getting inside the Fed. Plus Banco Santander faces a dilemma, and prediction markets make some questionable bets.

Traditional banks warn the Fed's decision to grant Kraken a limited-purpose account introduces systemic risks before final rules are even in place.

The proposed national trust charter company would be a wholly owned subsidiary of Morgan Stanley. The application was filed on Feb. 18.

A final rule published by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Friday will formalize a 2021 interpretive guidance allowing national trust banks to perform non-fiduciary custody. The banking industry complained that the rule runs counter to the traditional scope of the charter. 

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould took several assertive stances at a Senate Banking Committee hearing Thursday, minimizing concerns about banks' potential compliance costs to collect citizenship data and sidestepping questions about World Liberty Financial's trust charter application.

In this week's American Banker global payments and fintech roundup, Revolut, Tether and Circle made announcements designed to improve their standing in the stablecoin market. That comes amid new research from McKinsey that says the digital asset is growing quickly, but has not made even a small dent in payments.

If the company gets final approval, it will be the newest crypto firm to receive a charter in recent months.

While bank and crypto lobbyists argue over yield provisions in the crypto bill, another part of the legislation could have a much bigger impact on banks' bottom lines.

The stablecoin arm of Stripe recently announced its conditional trust charter approval from the OCC and a partnership with business payments fintech Payoneer.

New York Attorney General Letitia James warns that scammers are coaching victims to bypass bank security and using "second act" schemes to steal more.

After losing nearly $700 million in the fourth quarter as bitcoin's valuation tanked, Brian Armstrong stressed product diversification will help the company navigate the downturn.

While "Q-Day" may be years away, experts warn hackers are already harvesting encrypted data to decrypt later, making the transition to new standards urgent.

The crypto crash highlighted an overlooked aspect of stablecoins: They have both a stable value and a market-traded price, but the two don't always match. What does the risk of de-pegs mean for payments?