OCC Chief Signals Final GENIUS Act Rules by Late October
TREE NEWS reports: Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency expects to publish final rules implementing the GENIUS Act by the end of October, a timeline that would give federal bank regulators a concrete framework for supervising stablecoin issuers. Gould made the remarks during a Milken Institute event focused on building the new digital economy.
Why the GENIUS Act Matters
The GENIUS Act, short for the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, creates a federal licensing and reserve regime for payment stablecoins. It divides oversight between federal regulators and qualified state regimes, imposes reserve, redemption, and disclosure requirements, and clarifies that permitted issuers can operate across state lines without a patchwork of licenses.
The OCC’s role is central. As the primary federal supervisor for national banks and federal savings associations, it will charter and examine federal stablecoin issuers, and its rulebook will define what counts as permissible reserve assets, how audits and attestations should work, and what capital and liquidity buffers apply.
Industry Implications
- Regulatory clarity: Final rules would remove a major source of uncertainty for issuers such as Circle and Paxos, and for banks exploring tokenized deposits.
- Bank entry: National banks and trust charters could issue stablecoins under a clear federal path, accelerating TradFi convergence with on-chain finance.
- State-federal balance: The rulemaking will test how smoothly the OCC’s federal regime meshes with state frameworks like New York’s BitLicense.
- Reserve standards: Definitions of eligible reserves — cash, Treasuries, repo — will determine yield, risk, and the competitive position of different issuers.
- Global spillover: A functioning U.S. regime could pressure the EU’s MiCA framework and other jurisdictions to refine their own stablecoin rules.
What to Watch
The comment period and any interagency coordination with the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and Treasury will shape the final text. Market participants should watch for details on reserve composition, redemption timing, custody, and whether non-bank issuers can access Federal Reserve services. If the October deadline holds, the United States could enter 2025 with an operational federal stablecoin framework — a milestone for dollar-backed digital assets and the broader tokenization agenda.
