The cryptocurrency sector is witnessing bankers taking an active role in shaping regulatory frameworks, with a coalition of bank trade associations recently petitioning the US Department of the Treasury to extend the public consultation period for the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. In a letter addressed to the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, US bankers are requesting a 60-day extension for commenting on three GENIUS Act proposals, following the completion of another rulemaking effort by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC's stablecoin issuer policing rule is crucial to the outcome of other regulations being developed by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), as well as a related rulemaking by the FDIC. According to the bankers, all these efforts are 'directly contingent on the OCC's final framework' and collectively represent a regulatory undertaking of unprecedented scope and complexity.
The banking organizations, including the American Bankers Association and the Bank Policy Institute, argue that having sufficient time to evaluate the proposed rules against the finalized OCC framework will enable them to provide more comprehensive and useful feedback to the agencies. The GENIUS Act is slated for implementation by 2027, although federal agencies often grant extensions for complex rulemaking processes. The Treasury Department has not yet responded to requests for comment on the banking industry's petition. Meanwhile, the same bankers are engaged in a debate with the crypto industry over stablecoin regulation, which has already led to delays in the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act and may jeopardize its chances of becoming law this year.