Executives from several bitcoin businesses told a panel of state banking regulators meeting Friday that banks are skittish to set up partnerships with them because of an uncertain regulatory environment surrounding cryptocurrencies.

Executives from BitPay, Xapo, SecondMarket and CoinX spoke before a meeting of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) Emerging Payments Task Force in Chicago.

During the hearing, these bitcoin industry representatives indicated that more concise but supportive rules are needed for bitcoin companies to establish themselves more broadly with consumers.

CoinDesk reported that Bryan Krohn, BitPay’s chief financial officer, told the panel that the lack of a regulatory framework generates rejections from bankers:

“Banks are just backing away. The cost for doing this is too burdensome, and they just say no,” CoinDesk quotes Krohn as telling the panel.

The panel members suggested that creating regulations for bitcoin businesses that mirror those governing traditional money services businesses (MSBs) would help bitcoin businesses.

You can see a webcast of the two-hour hearing at the CSBS website.