Regulation
Crypto companies need to provide timely customer service
New York’s Financial Regulatory Authority has introduced new customer service guidelines for cryptocurrency companies.
The new indications announced by New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) requires such companies to uphold “effective” policies and procedures to promptly address customer service issues and to collect relevant data to ensure that these companies resolve complaints fairly and promptly.
“Consumers have the right to a transparent and timely process for resolving complaints and answering questions, regardless of the company or product in question,” DFS Superintendent Adriana Harris said on a Thursday (30 May) Press release. “This guidance outlines clear expectations for a positive customer experience, benefiting both consumers and businesses.”
The regulator expects cryptocurrency companies to follow “commonly effective policies and procedures,” such as providing customers with both a telephone mechanism and an electronic text mechanism to submit requests and complaints, according to the release.
Additionally, companies should offer regular customer updates and estimated resolution times, giving customers the means to stay updated on the status of their request or complaint, “and providing an explanation when the outcome of an issue is less than the customer’s was looking,” DFS said.
The new guidance comes at a time when, as PYMNTS wrote earlier this month, cryptocurrencies are trying take deeper steps in the world of traditional finance.
“Big banks and financial institutions are much more interested today than they were five or six years ago, when we launched some products for the first time,” Brooks Entwistlesenior vice president of global customer success and managing director at Ripple, he told PYMNTS last fall. “You certainly almost never saw the boardroom when you raised the topic of blockchain and especially cryptocurrencies in the early days.”
And this receptivity is having an impact on the entire market. For example, online brokerage Robinhood Markets recently reported quarterly profits that exceeded expectationsfueled by strong cryptocurrency trading volumes.
At the same time, Robinhood faces challenges in the in the form of a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a sign of potential enforcement action against the company and something that raises concerns about the future of the company’s cryptocurrency trading division.
“This, it seems, exemplifies the state of the cryptocurrency industry in 2024: two steps forward and three steps back,” PYMNTS wrote. “Or maybe it’s the other way around – only time will tell.”