The US Federal Reserve has approved rules banning its officials from trading stocks, bonds and cryptocurrencies as well.
It is reported that the rules announced on Friday were first set in October, but the previous announcement did not include a ban on cryptocurrencies.
The Federal Open Market Committee announced that most of the restrictions will take effect on May 1.
The Federal Reserve expects that additional employees will become subject to all or parts of these rules following further review and analysis.
Encryption ban
Friday’s announcement extended the ban to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, which were not mentioned in the original announcement in October.
Under the regulations, officials who still hold market positions will have 12 months to relinquish prohibited positions.
The new Fed officials will have 6 months to do so.
In the future, officials covered by the new rules must provide 45 days’ notice before making any permitted asset purchases.
After that, they will have to hold these positions for at least a year and will be banned from any trading during “periods of increased financial market stress.”
Besides stocks, bonds and cryptocurrencies, the ban extends to commodities, forex, sectoral index funds, derivatives, short positions, agency securities or the use of margin debt to purchase assets.
Congress was debating a measure that would also restrict its members from owning individual shares, although it has not yet been adopted.