Banking regulators are working to complete final rules on the application procedure banks must follow to issue payment stablecoins, with one agency on Wednesday pledging it will have a final rule ready in November.
Meanwhile, a proposed rule from the Treasury Department establishing certain prohibitions, limitations and other measures for stablecoin issuers is out for public comment until Oct. 19.
The rulemakings are being written under the GENIUS Act (the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act), which beginning Jan. 18, 2027, will require any issuer to have a state or federal license to issue stablecoins.
Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, speaking during a “fireside chat” at a blockchain symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo., on Wednesday said his agency is “very intent on moving quickly and getting a final rule out by November” so the agency can begin processing applications in January, according to an online transcript of Gould’s remarks.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), and Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) have all proposed rules governing supervised institutions’ involvement in stablecoins. FinCEN is involved in the proposals for a customer ID (CID) program for permitted stablecoin issuers, and others making stablecoin issuers subject to the Bank Secrecy Act’s (BSA) anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) rules.
The more recent Treasury proposal, issued late last week and published in the Federal Register Tuesday, would implement the GENIUS Act’s prohibitions and limitations on payment stablecoin issuance, offer, and sale in the United States.
Following an advance notice of proposed rulemaking last September, the Treasury proposal (among other things) applies to certain payment stablecoin issuances by foreign issuers; includes stablecoin issuers within the definition of “digital asset service provider”; and provides “nonexclusive” examples of when a person would be considered to be participating in unlawful stablecoin issuance.
The three examples, briefly, include:
- incurring an obligation to a third party to convert, redeem, or repurchase a payment stablecoin, including a secondary obligation to convert, redeem, or repurchase on behalf of the original issuer;
- coordinating with the issuer to facilitate key steps in the issuance, such as soliciting customers or minting the payment stablecoins; and
- acting as a market maker for newly issued payment stablecoins, distributing the newly issued payment stablecoins to purchasers of newly issued payment stablecoins, or otherwise making the newly issued payment stablecoins available for secondary market trading.
Federal Register notice (Treasury proposal)
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