Banking Associations Seek Pause in GENIUS Act Rulemaking Process

Four banking associations are looking to pause the rulemaking process for the GENIUS Act until one of the relevant final rules has been issued.

The American Bankers Association (ABA), Bank Policy Institute (BPI), Consumer Bankers Association(CBA) and Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) made this request in a Tuesday (April 21) joint letter addressed to the Treasury Department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

In their letter, the banking groups said that while these organizations have issued their respective notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRMs) for the GENIUS Act, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has not yet issued its final rule after its NPRM earlier this year.

They asked the organizations to extend the deadline for public comments on their respective NPRMs to 60 days after the OCC issues its final rule implementing the GENIUS Act for the entities that are subject to its jurisdiction.

The associations added that each of the NPRMs refers to the OCC’s framework, and are “substantively tethered” to it, although it has not yet been finalized. The OCC’s proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on March 2 and is open for comment until May 1.

“The public is entitled to the opportunity to review coordinated proposals together, particularly to assess whether the agencies are proposing consistent, risk-based approaches and to identify any divergences or gaps that warrant attention,” the banking associations said in the letter. “A comment period extension calibrated to the finalization of the OCC’s rule would allow all interested parties to submit integrated, holistic comments across the full body of implementing rulemakings.”

The GENIUS Act became the country’s first-ever piece of crypto legislation when President Donald Trump signed it into law in July. PYMNTS reported at the time that the long-awaited policy framework could signal a new era for crypto in the U.S., or at least for the stablecoins the GENIUS Act was written to regulate.

PYMNTS reported April 8 that the GENIUS Act remains the first and only crypto policy signed into law and that regulators are now operationalizing it to create a unified supervisory regime.