Commonwealth Bank halts crypto trading trial as regulators dither.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has shelved its plans for a second pilot program of crypto trading services indefinitely and cut off access to those in the first round of testing.

The CBA sent us a transcript of a Tuesday bank briefing in which CEO Matt Comyn said he was still waiting for regulatory clarity. He also said that he was “working with a number of regulators very closely, as you would expect, about the right treatment of this product:”

“Our intention still, at this stage, is to restart the pilot, but there are still a couple of things that we want to work through on a regulatory front to make sure that that is most appropriate.”

Comyn stated that the program is presently being evaluated by the Treasury, but he did not reveal a timetable for completion.

Last week’s volatile trading appears to back up the need for a longer delay, according to Comyn. Last month, financial regulators halted a second pilot project after investors complained that it would be dangerous. ASIC opposed CBA’s services on the grounds that customer protections were lacking.

He said, “It is clearly a very volatile sector that remains an enormous amount of interest:”

“But alongside that volatility and awareness and I guess the scale, certainly globally, you can see there is a lot of interest from regulators and people thinking about the best way to regulate that.”

Comyn also suggested that the bank was waiting for the outcome of the Federal election on May 21. A new government might consider wide changes in the crypto regulatory landscape, which will be a focus for the incoming administration to consider, according to Comyn.

According to a leadership and entrepreneurship lecturer at Swinburne University, CBA may be progressing slowly in case of reputational injury.

Dr. Slampasis added, “Given the recent price drop in the cryptocurrency markets as a result of Terra’s collapse, ‘balancing risk, brand equity and regulatory clarity’ will be critical to minimise disruption to CBA’s current business model.”

In November, the CBA was the first major bank in Australia to introduce crypto services via its mobile app. The pilot program stated that once completed, users would be able to access the app’s 6.5 million users. Those plans have been put on hold indefinitely as of now.

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