OCC Finalizes Its GENIUS Act Stablecoin Rule, With a January 2027 Start and Anti-Money-Laundering Rules Still to Come
The US bank regulator's final rule covers reserves, redemption, custody and foreign issuers, drops a contested rewards presumption, and leaves sanctions and AML duties to a later Treasury rulemaking.
Thursday, October 22, 2026/2 min read
One of the main US bank regulators finished its stablecoin homework on Wednesday. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued its final rule implementing the GENIUS Act, and the rule takes effect on 18 January 2027, the same day as the law, according to the agency's OCC Bulletin 2026-50.
Comptroller Jonathan Gould called it "a clear, practical framework for payment stablecoin innovation," Decrypt reported. Circle and Coinbase shares each rose more than 4 percent on the day, Yahoo Finance's market coverage said.
Who does the OCC stablecoin rule cover?
It applies to national banks, federal savings associations, federal branches and their subsidiaries, foreign payment stablecoin issuers, nonbank firms seeking federal qualified issuer status and certain state-qualified issuers under OCC authority. Most of the text sits in a new Part 15 of Title 12 of the Code of Federal Regulations and deals with permitted activities, reserve assets, redemption, risk management, audits and reports, custody, applications and a capital and operational backstop. It also covers how state issuers move into the federal framework and how approval can be revoked.
What does it say about reserves, redemption and rewards?
Altcoin Buzz reads the text as requiring reserves of at least one to one at all times and redemption within two business days of a request. We could confirm those two terms only in that outlet's account, not in the OCC bulletin, which lists the topics without spelling out the figures, so read the rule itself for the detail.
The same outlet reported that the OCC dropped a proposed rebuttable presumption that certain affiliate and related-party arrangements broke the ban on paying interest on stablecoins, and will instead use case-by-case enforcement discretion. It also declined requests to delay the rule, saying its regulations need to be in force when the Act takes effect, Altcoin Buzz said.
What is still missing from the stablecoin framework?
Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money-laundering and sanctions rules are excluded and will come in a separate rulemaking with the Treasury Department, the OCC said. FinCEN and OFAC proposed their versions in April, Decrypt noted. Regulators missed the law's earlier July deadline for final rules; Gould had said in August the OCC aimed to finish by November.
The GENIUS Act became law in July 2025, and the OCC proposed its rule in February with a 60-day comment period. It received hundreds of comments and said it will monitor the sector and adjust the framework as needed. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent compared the law to Abraham Lincoln's National Currency Act of 1863, Decrypt reported.
Applications cannot begin until the Office of Management and Budget approves the OCC's forms, and the agency has not said when that will happen. It generally expects to waive prior approval for existing US issuers unless it finds compelling reasons to deny. The date the OCC opens its application window, and the final AML text, are the next two things the industry will be watching.
Published in The Outspoken Digest
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