ICBA, others urge regulators to coordinate GENIUS Act rulemaking

ICBA and other groups called for greater interagency coordination on GENIUS Act rulemaking.

Details: In a joint letter to the federal banking regulators, ICBA and the other groups said that not only is coordination required by the GENIUS Act, it is also critical to ensure that the permitted payment stablecoin issuer regulatory framework does not create an unlevel playing field or opportunities for regulatory arbitrage, unintended policy consequences, or unworkable or incongruous requirements.

Recent Advocacy: The letter follows similar recent efforts to ensure coordination:

• ICBA and other groups recently urged the National Credit Union Administration to work with the Federal Reserve, OCC, and FDIC to ensure that requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers are substantially similar and appropriately rigorous.

• ICBA and 44 state banking associations this month urged regulators to work closely to ensure regulatory parity, proactively address systemic risks, address tokenized deposits, and ensure tokenized deposit policy is technology-neutral and accessible to community banks.

Rulemakings: Numerous GENIUS Act rulemakings were initiated ahead of the statutory deadline on July 18:

• The OCC last month proposed a new information collection that would include weekly and quarterly reporting forms for permitted payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act.

• The FDIC in April released a proposed rule to establish a prudential framework for FDIC-supervised payment stablecoins issuers under the GENIUS Act.

• The Treasury Department in April issued a proposed rule to implement the GENIUS Act’s anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance program requirements.

• The OCC issued a GENIUS Act implementation proposal in late February.

• In a separate Treasury proposed rule to implement GENIUS Act policies on state-level regulatory regimes, it said the OCC’s rule will serve as a key component of the federal regulatory framework.

• The FDIC in December proposed a rule to establish GENIUS Act procedures for the agency to accept and process payment stablecoin issuer applications from FDIC-supervised banks.

More ICBA Advocacy:

• ICBA last month called on the FDIC to adopt a strict payment stablecoin framework.

• ICBA in May urged the OCC to strengthen its proposed GENIUS Act rules to protect against stablecoin risks.

• ICBA and other groups in May called on regulators to recognize and address several key risks in their first report on payment stablecoins.

• ICBA and other groups in April asked the FDIC and other agencies to extend the comment periods for their respective GENIUS Act proposals because the proposals rely on unfinished GENIUS Act regulations from the OCC.

• ICBA in November sent key principles for payment stablecoin supervision in a letter to Treasury regarding implementation of the GENIUS Act.