Financial watchdogs are hindering the way of the advancement in crypto services of CBA (Commonwealth Bank of Australia) through the mobile application. The bank first of all intends to provide the entirety of its 6.5M consumers with access to crypto services.

The CBA initiated a trial of the respective services in the previous year following which were expected by it to be available to the entirety of the customers of the application thereof, nonetheless, it presently seems to be stepping in the direction of another pilot. The AFR (Australia Financial Review) reported on 6th April that the ASIC (Australian Securities and Investment Commission) has conditioned red tape with the launch.

ASIC’s objection over the launch deals with customer protection in terms of product and market disclosures. ASIC and CBA have been working together along with some other regulatory agencies across the jurisdiction of Australia to initiate the services. On 6th April, while voicing at the Australian Financial Review Cryptocurrency Summit, Cathie Armour (the commissioner of ASIC) elaborated the latest concentration of the commission thereof on crypto notwithstanding the statements that it does not fall in the purview of ASIC.

She stated that even though crypto-assets do not necessarily come under the category of financial goods which can be regulated by the commission, they might be of concern as the customers might prefer to invest in an atmosphere where there would be a diverse protection level as compared with the financial services and products.

While criticizing the latest instructions issued on the behalf of the ASIC that restrict a considerable amount of the operations that are done on the behalf of financial influencers, Andrew Bragg (a Senator) mentioned that the rules of ASIC cannot be implemented on the crypto assets as crypto does not count as a financial product according to Australian law. Armour, while delivering her speech, remarked on the potential of ASIC in appropriately regulating the crypto assets.

 She added that it relies on if they are categorized under the legal agenda for financial services and products, which she denotes as a matter dealing with Parliament. As per Armour, she witnesses the potential advantages of innovation across the regulatory regime of the country, nevertheless warned that a lot of rules are present that are required to be followed.