FDIC Acting Chair Says Stablecoin Legislative Framework Coming This Month
This month, the legislative Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) will release its first set of proposed guidelines under the GENIUS Act. This is a large step forward for the U.S. in its efforts to create a legislative framework for stablecoins.
Travis Hill, the acting chair, that the proposal will explain how stablecoin issuers linked to FDIC-insured banks are regulated and monitored nationwide, moving away from the current system of fragmented, state-by-state monitoring.
This is part of a larger effort by regulators to make it clearer how traditional banking authorities monitor digital assets like stablecoins and tokenized deposits. The FDIC’s plan comes later than President Donald Trump signed a law in July that, for the first time, sets national requirements for U.S. stablecoins.
The Genius ACT Sets A National Norm
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act establishes the first government rules for payment stablecoins. It gives the FDIC, , Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) tasks to ensure that the law is carried out.
These agencies recently told the House Financial Services Committee how they plan to do things. This means that the law would replace the need for diverse state systems with a single national standard for issuer licensing and supervision.
The framework says that federal prudential regulators will be in charge of bank-linked issuers, but states will still be in charge of non-bank businesses unless new rules expand federal reach.
FDIC Supervision of Issuers Tied to Banks
Hill said that the will directly overview the subsidiaries of FDIC-insured banks that want to issue stablecoins. Before a bank’s subsidiary can launch a stablecoin, the bank must file a formal application. The FDIC will then assess the bank’s business strategies, risk management, and compliance procedures.
This month, the first rule will set the application framework for issuers who are connected to banks. A second proposal, scheduled to be released ahead next year, will set capital, liquidity, and reserve asset norms for payment stablecoin issuers. These will be the main regulatory protections for this group.
Limits on Scope and Issuers That Aren’t Banks
For now, the FDIC can only directly regulate banks and their subsidiaries. The states will mostly regulate non-bank stablecoin issuers. Hill said that if the federal government wanted to keep an eye on non-bank issuers, it would need to make new rules or pass new laws on top of the ones already in place under the .
Because of this separation, huge bank-backed stablecoins may eventually be able to follow the identical federal laws, but independent issuers will still have to deal with diverse state licensing systems for now. People in the market are keeping a close eye on whether the new federal model will eventually serve as a blueprint for broader industry coverage.
FDIC Uses Tokenized Deposits
The FDIC is also working on rules for tokenized deposits, in addition to stablecoins. This is because banks are increasingly interested in -based versions of traditional deposits.
According to Hill, the government is writing interpretive papers on how existing banking standards apply to tokenized deposit products. This is in accordance with the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets’ July recommendations.
These actions show that U.S. regulators are preparing for a future in which more banking products use distributed ledgers, while still following the rules. The FDIC is putting itself in the middle of the changing relationship between insured banking and digital assets by moving forward with the GENIUS Act guidelines and tokenized deposit guidance.
