Wells Fargo to Host Bitcoin Event Following Private Summit

Wells Fargo is hosting a public event to discuss bitcoin, a week after it held a private "summit" on the cryptocurrency in San Francisco.

Five speakers will each make 15-minute presentations, followed by questions from the audience. The speakers are; Seetha Ramachandran, the deputy chief of the asset forfeiture and money laundering section at the US Department of Justice; Fred Ehrsam, Coinbase co-founder; Jeremy Allaire, who raised $9m for his startup Circle; Albert Wenger, a partner at Union Square Ventures; and Margo Tank, a partner at Bucky Sandler LLP, a law firm that specialises in anti-money laundering and information security cases.

The event is moderated by Jim Richards, an executive vice president who is the bank's director of financial crimes risk management.

Wells Fargo convened a private "summit" of finance executives, digital currency experts and members of the US government to discuss bitcoin in San Francisco on 14th January. That event was led by Richards. According to the Financial Times, Richards has also launched a group to examine the feasibility of the bank offering bitcoin-related services.

Additionally, the bank plans to create a new set of anti-money laundering rules for financial institutions when dealing with digital currency startups, according to the newspaper.

The company is the largest US bank by market capitalisation, the fourth-largest by assets, and has 9,000 retail branches nationwide. Its increasing engagement with bitcoin suggests that the bank is taking the digital currency economy seriously, and that it is seeking to position itself as a leader in the emerging digital currency space.

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