Briefs · Emerging Technologies
Stablecoin issuers are about to learn what a bank already knows
Five American regulators have spoken with one voice, and the message to stablecoin issuers is simple: you are a financial institution now.
FinCEN, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and the National Credit Union Administration have jointly proposed the first Bank Secrecy Act customer-identification rules for permitted payment stablecoin issuers, under the GENIUS Act. Issuers would have to maintain an effective customer identification programme, the same know-your-customer discipline banks have lived with for decades.
The proposal covers primary-market activity: verifying who buys a stablecoin from the issuer, not every hand it passes through afterwards. Comments are open for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, and a 12-month implementation period is proposed once the rule is final.
Crypto wanted to be money without the paperwork. The paperwork has arrived, wearing a suit and carrying a form.
Conclusion: a stablecoin is not a bank, but rather a bank’s homework, and the homework is now due.
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