A KEY from proposed changes to SEC Custody Rule: account must protect customer assets in event of custodian insolvency. This prob means qualified custodians must be under statutory receivership regime to protect segregation in insolvency & state-chartered trust cos in crosshairs
Yep, here's more. Gensler was clear abt this in his prepared remarks & here it is in writing: Assets passing OUTSIDE OF THE BANK'S INSOLVENCY is key. Translation: SEC wants all qualified custodians to be subject to special receivership regime, ie not subject to US Bankruptcy Code
More: lookin' good so far for state-chartered special purpose depository institutions under statutory receivership regimes that keep assets outside of bank's estate (ie, #Wyoming SPDI banks). SEC asks for comment on whether to do away w/ dual banking system but doesn't propose it
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tl;dr--it doesn't kill #crypto custody; it's a move against state-chartered trust companies; there's one big issue, tho, which will trigger huge pushback
2/ THE BIG ISSUE (& I haven't seen anyone point this out yet)=the rqmt for custodians to indemnify for "negligence, recklessness or willful misconduct." All the banking, #WallSt, commodities & #crypto industries will push back together on this bc it could kill custody biz broadly
3/ What's the issue? Proposal wld apply Custody Rule to all asset classes incl commodities & #crypto (ie, not just securities)--OK, fine. But SEC also wants custodians to indemnify FULL asset value for losses in which custodian played ANY role (eg, an oil tanker sinks; cows die).
1/ THINKING ABOUT all things bond mkt after catching up on morning reading☕️. 15yrs of my #WallSt career was helping pension plans/life insurers fix their past mistakes (most of which made them inherently short vol). Fundamental probs w/ bond mkt structure exacerbated this prob.
2/ The underlying issue pertains to how fin mkts deal with duration. Pensions & life insurers have the longest-duration liabilities in the fin system & yet they scramble to find duration-matched assets to buy bc there’s either a structural shortage of them, or they’re in banks.
3/ In the UK, where mortgages are mostly floating-rate, UK govt issuing long-duration gilts is the primary source of long-duration assets for pension funds. High % of UK pension liabs are inflation-indexed too (far more than in US) & again the offsetting asset comes from UK govt.
1/ WOW--pageviews on this kinda viral. Thanks all!🙏 2 reactions to comments:
A) ppl seem surprised that I'm talking abt #bitcoin as pymt tech, not as an asset. Not new. I've always said price is the LEAST interesting aspect of #BTC + been critical of its leveraged financializers
2/ Leverage-based financializers & esp criminals & fraudsters set the industry back + manipulated secondary market price (#bitcoin became #WallSt's latest plaything🤮). "Play stupid games win stupid prizes" as saying goes. Hope everyone learns. Innocents: sorry for your losses.
3/ More interesting=those asking me "why warn the banks?" 3 things: on/off ramps btwn USD & #BTC still matter (there aren't many & they're at some risk of regulatory crackdown); banks aren't going away as fee-based service providers/safeguarders of property; & we're not ready yet
1/ OK, so since my rural/urban life history seemed to fascinate y’all, here’s a bit more. This weekend I learned abt my great, great, great grandfather, who was a pioneer settlor of Johnson County, Iowa. Wolfgang Rohret immigrated from Bavaria w/ his family via Baltimore in 1840.
2/ Wolfgang Rohret was drafted to fight for Napoleon at age 15 & was one of the *FEW* survivors of Napoleon’s ill-fated invasion of Russia in 1812, known as “one of the most lethal military operations in world history” (>90% died). He immigrated to the US in 1840 w/ his family.
3/ His son, my great great grandfather, Peter Rohret, was 11 when the family immigrated to Iowa from Bavaria. The sons were skilled at construction & helped build the Iowa territorial capitol building (now on Univ of Iowa campus). They also built these cabins, now in City Park
1/ I'VE BEEN THINKING MORE abt the #bitcoin ETF. For yrs, I've said ETFs are a double-edged sword for bitcoin (bc ETF mkt makers are permitted by law to create more claims to the underlying asset than the quantity of the underlying, which distorts the price of the underlying).
2/ But, as I wrote in @Newsweek this week, the SEC's decisions to reject spot #bitcoin ETFs don't exist in a vacuum. They must be viewed in context of the SEC's decisions in 2015 to approve 1 (& only 1) fund structure for bitcoin--& not another until 2021. newsweek.com/crypto-crash-w…
3/ The decisions from 2015-21 + the inherent structure of closed-end funds (which can trade at very different prices than their underlying asset) created a massive market distortion, as detailed in my @Newsweek post. That market distortion brought in the fast-money #WallSt crowd.