The US banking regulator OCC on 26 October called on community banks to enter the stablecoin market by applying, directly or through subsidiaries, to become permitted issuers under the GENIUS Act. In a separate bulletin on 21 October, the OCC said issuers must comply with its new rules from 18 January 2027. Existing issuers that have filed a substantially complete application by then may request temporary waivers. The OCC is not yet accepting applications, which will open once the required federal paperwork process is completed.
What it means: The call has a political background. US banking groups worry that stablecoins, especially those offering indirect yields, could pull deposits away from banks, and the community bankers’ association has sued the OCC over the charters it granted to crypto firms. The OCC is responding by encouraging small banks to become part of the market themselves rather than leaving it to large banks and crypto companies. For small banks the obstacle is not only the licence but also the cost of technology, compliance and reserve management, so they are likely to turn to shared platforms or partnerships. In Europe MiCA already allows credit institutions to issue e-money tokens after notifying their supervisor, and several European banks have formed a consortium for a euro stablecoin. For Greek banks the question is whether to join such consortia or wait for the digital euro. For businesses, the development shows that US stablecoins will increasingly be issued by supervised banks, which improves transparency over reserves.
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