Bank Regulatory

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On February 25, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released a 376‑page notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act for entities under its jurisdiction. The proposed rule would create a comprehensive framework for “payment stablecoin” issuers supervised by the OCC, foreign payment stablecoin issuers accessing the U.S. market, and certain custody activities by OCC‑regulated banks. The NPRM was published in the Federal Register on March 2, with the 60-day comment period ending on May 1, 2026. The NPRM also poses more than 200 specific questions for public comment on definitions, activities, reserves, liquidity, and other key design choices.

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.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) jointly issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to modernize anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance program requirements. The proposed rule is intended to align their rules with FinCEN’s parallel amendments under the Bank Secrecy Act and the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (discussed here). FinCEN’s proposal lays out the big-picture requirements for AML/CFT programs under the Bank Secrecy Act, while the federal banking agencies’ proposal takes those rules and aligns them to their own supervisory and examination frameworks so they can actually oversee and enforce the requirements for financial institutions. Comments are due no later than June 9, 2026.

On April 7, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would significantly revise Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) program requirements across a broad range of financial institutions. The proposal is a central element of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s effort to modernize the AML/CFT framework by moving away from purely technical, process-driven compliance toward demonstrable effectiveness in identifying, mitigating, and reporting money laundering, terrorist financing, and related illicit finance risks.

On March 19, the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (collectively, the agencies) jointly issued three proposed rules to “modernize” the regulatory capital framework for banking organizations of all sizes. The agencies aim to simplify how capital is calculated, better align requirements with underlying risk, and maintain the strength of the banking system, even as they project a modest decline in aggregate capital requirements compared to today’s levels. Comments on all three proposals are due by June 18, 2026.

The U.S. credit card industry is staring down a two-pronged policy challenge.

On one front, the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) is intended to foster increased competition in credit card merchant transaction routing so as to engender downward pressure on network interchange fees. On the other, a push to cap credit card Annual Percentage Rates…

In a recent decision, the Delaware Court of Chancery held on summary judgment that a borrower’s grant of a security interest in substantially all of its assets, including its rights under a license agreement, constituted an “assignment” or “transfer” of such rights that triggered the license agreement counterparty’s contractual right of first negotiation (ROFN) and right of first refusal (ROFR). The decision has implications beyond the pharmaceutical licensing context in which it arose, and should prompt careful review of transfer restriction provisions in any agreement where a party may later seek to pledge its contractual rights as collateral.

On February 11, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) released a proposed rule to implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (the GENIUS Act) for federally insured credit unions (FICUs). Under the proposal, credit unions cannot issue payment stablecoins directly. Instead, only NCUA‑licensed “permitted payment stablecoin issuers” (PPSIs) that are subsidiaries of FICUs would be allowed to issue payment stablecoins, and FICUs would be limited to investing only in PPSIs licensed by the NCUA.