The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency needs to coordinate with other federal agencies to ensure that all stablecoin issuers are subject to the same regulatory expectations, the American Bankers Association said this week.
The OCC and other regulators are currently drafting rulemakings to implement the Genius Act. Each agency will oversee a different part of the payment stablecoin ecosystem, with the OCC the primary regulator of nonbank stablecoin issuers.
Earlier this week, ABA sent a letter to the FDIC encouraging it to coordinate with other agencies as it drafts rules for issuers under its jurisdiction. ABA included that letter in its comments to the OCC along with a summary of its requests. The association urged regulatory alignment among the agencies to ensure that no part of the stablecoin issuer sector enjoys a competitive advantage over the others. It also encouraged the agencies to align their timelines for implementing their rulemakings.
The Genius Act allows for stablecoin issuers to request to be subject to regulation by states with regulatory regimes “substantially similar” to those adopted by federal regulators. ABA said coordination between federal agencies “is therefore a precondition not only for coherence among the federal regimes but for the workability of the state pathway itself.”
