Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo gave the Senate Banking Committee an update on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Adeyemo has been a vocal advocate of increasing the regulatory powers of the United States Treasury and their impact on domestic financial affairs.

Adeyemo gives an update to the Senate Banking Committee

The Deputy Secretary said in front of the Senate Banking Committee “I am here today because we need additional tools to protect the American people.”

Adeyemo would continue that “we(The Treasury) take steps to cut terrorist groups and other malign actors off from the traditional financial system, we are concerned about the ways these actors are using cryptocurrencies to try and circumvent our sanctions.”

Deputy Secretary Adeyemo had proposed three key reform topics to the Senate Banking Committee in November of 2023. These included the creation of a financial sanction tool targeted “at foreign digital asset providers that facilitate illicit finance.”

The second topic proposed was “modernizing and closing gaps in existing authorities by expanding their reach to explicitly cover the key players and core activities of the digital assets ecosystem.”

Thirdly, Adeyemo addressed “jurisdictional risk from offshore cryptocurrency platforms, which is a key challenge.”

The United States Treasury has stated that cryptocurrency is an emerging player in the hands of dangerous groups. Deputy Secretary Adeyemo would also highlight the funding routes that terrorists and key groups of concern use.

He said “While we continue to assess that terrorists prefer to use traditional financial products and services, we fear that without Congressional action to provide us with the necessary tools, the use of virtual assets by these actors will only grow.

While these actors today only use virtual assets for a fraction of their illicit activity, we know in other areas, illicit actors almost completely rely on virtual currencies. Over the past few years, ransomware attacks have only increased in scale, sophistication, and frequency. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network found, based on BSA reporting, that more than $1 billion of ransomware payments were made exclusively using cryptocurrency in 2023. This not only has an impact on our national security but also on our economy,”

You can view the full hearing of the Senate Banking Committee and it is hoped that today’s session will root out the foreign and domestic threats that illicit banking can bring.

Image: Ideogram.

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