RBC

Let's pile on Jamie Dimon. Yeah, you remember him. Big banker guy. Famous for saying "bitcoin is a fraud". Yeah, him. Well, after being rebuffed last week by the CEO of Morgan Stanley, here comes Dave McKay, CEO of RBC, saying, basically, Jamie is wrong. And, of course, even Goldman Sachs announced they may go into bitcoin trading. Let's pile on OLD Jamie. It's so fun.

(Bill Taylor/CEO)

"TORONTO (Reuters) - The chief executive of Canada’s biggest lender on Thursday pushed back on a suggestion by JPMorgan (

JP.N

) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon that bitcoin is a fraud, though he said the cryptocurrency needs monitoring.

Speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event in Toronto, Dave McKay, CEO of Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO), said: ”Has Bitcoin misrepresented what it is? No.

“What it’s solving is a way to avoid detection in moving money in our society and transferring value from one person to another,” McKay said. “I think where Jamie is probably coming from is it’s helping evade the supervision of moving money and from that perspective it needs to be monitored.”

While banks have largely steered clear of bitcoin since it emerged following the financial crisis, the virtual currency is supported by a range of people, including technology enthusiasts, libertarians skeptical of government monetary policy and speculators attracted by its price swings.

Dimon earlier this month said that the currency “will not work” and said he would fire any JP Morgan staff who traded it.

McKay said that if RBC staff were trading bitcoin, he would “probably ask them to stop.”

RBC, however, is researching how it can utilize the distribution ledger technology that underpins bitcoin, called blockchain. RBC earlier told Reuters that it was experimenting with blockchain to help move payments between its U.S. and Canadian banks..." Full Story at Reuters