On April 21, four major banking trade associations — the American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute, Consumer Bankers Association, and Independent Community Bankers Association (collectively, the associations) — sent a joint letter to the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) requesting an additional 60 days to comment on three key proposed rules implementing the GENIUS Act after the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issues a final rule implementing the GENIUS Act for entities subject to the OCC’s jurisdiction. These rulemakings address, respectively, how to determine whether state stablecoin regimes are “substantially similar” to the federal framework (discussed here), prudential standards for FDIC‑supervised permitted payment stablecoin issuers and insured depository institutions, and Anti-Money Laundering (AML)/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and sanctions compliance program requirements for stablecoin issuers.

Dependence on the OCC’s GENIUS Act Rule

The trade associations’ central argument is that the three proposals are heavily dependent on the OCC’s separate GENIUS Act rule for OCC‑supervised entities, which remains in proposed form and open for comment until May 1, 2026. Treasury’s “substantial similarity” test explicitly incorporates OCC interpretations and regulations into the definition of the federal framework. The FDIC proposal seeks to align with the OCC’s rule “in many areas,” and invites comment on how far that alignment should go. The FinCEN/OFAC’s AML/CFT rule describes itself as one piece of a broader prudential and risk‑management structure that is still taking shape. According to the associations, it is not realistic to provide fully informed comments on these interlocking proposals before the OCC’s rule is finalized.

Need for Holistic, Coordinated Review

The letter also stresses the volume, complexity, and interdependence of the GENIUS Act rulemakings across multiple agencies, including expected rules from the Federal Reserve Board and National Credit Union Administration, as well as additional FinCEN requirements concerning Customer Identification Programs. Section 5(h)(2) of the GENIUS Act requires coordination among the primary federal payment stablecoin regulators, and the trade associations argue that staggered, compressed comment deadlines work against that mandate. They urge federal regulators to extend the comment periods to 60 days after publication of the OCC’s final rule implementing the GENIUS Act so that stakeholders can review the entire framework together and provide integrated, consistent feedback.

Our Take

Whether federal regulators grant the requested comment period extension will shape how the industry engages with the GENIUS Act regulatory framework over the coming months. In the meantime, banks, stablecoin issuers, and other interested parties should track the OCC’s proposed rulemaking closely, evaluate how their activities may be affected across the various proposals, and prepare to submit comments for the three proposed rulemakings that address both the substance of the rules and the need for cross‑agency consistency.