Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley’s E-TRADE was reported to be exploring starting cryptocurrency trading, according to a report by The Information. Now Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick said the bank itself is exploring cryptocurrency.
“I think the broader question is whether some of this has come of age. Whether it has hit escape velocity. Time is the friend. The longer it trades, perception becomes reality,” said Mr Pick, talking at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“For us, the equation is really around whether we, as a highly regulated financial institution, can act as transactors,” Mr Pick told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin.
“We’ll be working with Treasury and the other regulators to figure out how we can offer that in a safe way,” Mr Pick said.
Some jurisdictions are further along that path than the United States. Switzerland was one of the first movers, with crypto offered to retail customers at the post office. In the past few months several German banks have started to offer crypto services including Commerzbank and LBBW for corporate clients and DZ Bank is piloting retail offerings. All three are partnering with crypto exchanges.
The SEC’s negative stance also slowed down the adoption of tokenization, particularly with the SEC’s accounting bulletin SAB 121 making it hard for banks to provide custody for cryptocurrencies or tokenized securities. Before SAB 121 was on the radar, Morgan Stanley invested in tokenization firm Securitize. Or rather the investment was made by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value, which may not reflect directly on the bank.
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