The American Bankers Association today said it supports the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s proposed approach to treat stablecoin issuers like financial institutions for Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions compliance, but believes further changes are needed for equal treatment of all regulated entities.
The Genius Act directs federal banking agencies to implement regulations for stablecoin issuers. The OCC’s proposed rule would require issuers regulated by the agency to maintain effective AML/CFT and sanctions compliance programs, in accordance with the rules proposed by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and Office of Foreign Assets Control earlier this year.
In a letter, ABA said the agency takes a “sensible approach to burden reduction and regulatory consistency” in its proposed rulemaking. Still, the association noted it has recommended that FinCEN and OFAC make changes to their proposal, including adopting an examination framework under which all categories of stablecoin issuers are examined for anti-money launders/countering the financing of terrorism and sanctions compliance by the same federal banking agencies.
In addition, ABA said:
- FinCEN should apply the “deemed compliance” logic to the stablecoin issuer subsidiaries of insured depository institutions, allowing them to rely on their parent bank’s enterprise-wide AML/CFT program.
- The final rule should confirm that it imposes obligations solely on issuers and does not reach reserve custodian banks or other financial institutions providing services to those issuers.
- FinCEN and OFAC should define key terms — including “block,” “freeze,” “burn,” “reject,” “seize,” and “account”— to provide legal certainty in compliance and enforcement.
ABA also noted that OCC’s proposal seeks answers to several questions that go beyond the scope of the rule. It asked for an extension of the 30-day comment window to provide adequate feedback on the questions, and that the topics raised be addressed in separate rulemaking.
