The American Bankers Association (ABA) has criticized finalized rules from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) governing how payment stablecoins can be issued and how custody arrangements should work. In a Wednesday statement, the industry group said the OCC’s interpretation—approved as part of the regulatory framework implementing the GENIUS Act—misread Congress’s intent, particularly on the question of stablecoin yield.
Key takeaways
- The ABA argues the OCC removed earlier safeguards that would have treated certain third-party yield arrangements as effectively violating the GENIUS Act’s yield prohibition.
- ABA warns issuers could offer “economically equivalent” rewards while technically avoiding the statutory ban, creating regulatory gaps.
- The Blockchain Association said the OCC’s revision better matches the statutory text, while banking groups fear ambiguity.
- The rules are set to take effect ahead of the GENIUS Act’s implementation in January 2027, with additional agency guidance expected from the Fed and Treasury.
ABA pushes back on OCC’s stablecoin yield approach
According to the ABA, the OCC’s final rule included “several positive steps,” but the banking group remained focused on one major change: the regulator dropped a provision that would have established a presumption that certain third-party arrangements run afoul of the GENIUS Act’s prohibition on yield payments.
The ABA also said the OCC declined to adopt a broader presumption aimed at arrangements that are designed to work around the yield restriction—an issue that has drawn sustained attention from both lawmakers and industry participants as the GENIUS Act moved through Congress.
In the ABA’s view, those omissions matter because payment stablecoins occupy a regulatory boundary the law is designed to preserve: Congress drew a distinction between payment stablecoins and traditional bank deposits. If that boundary becomes too porous, the ABA argues it could undermine the funds banks rely on to make loans.
“The final rule removes the OCC’s originally proposed safeguards that would have addressed indirect arrangements involving affiliates, exchanges and other distribution partners. As a result, payment stablecoin issuers can provide economically equivalent yield while technically avoiding the statutory prohibition. The OCC also declined to adopt a broader presumption against arrangements designed to circumvent the ban.”
Why the yield presumption debate remains central
Before and after the GENIUS Act passed in July 2025, rewards or yield on stablecoins were among the most contested provisions across legislative and industry discussions. The ABA’s critique suggests that the final OCC rules will leave room for market structures that could replicate the economic effect of yield without being categorized as direct yield payments.
Supporters of the OCC’s final approach see the situation differently. The Blockchain Association backed the change, arguing the OCC “brought the final rule more closely in line with the statutory text.” That framing implies that the dropped presumption was too broad or not properly supported by the law as written.
Meanwhile, the Bank Policy Institute—another banking industry advocacy group—said the omission replaces clarity with ambiguity. The group warned that the resulting uncertainty could increase the risk of “deposit flight,” tying the policy dispute back to the traditional banking funding model and the stability of the loan supply.
GENIUS implementation timeline and additional rulemaking expected
The OCC finalized these payment stablecoin issuance and custody rules ahead of the GENIUS Act’s implementation in January 2027. The ABA statement indicates the banking industry is already treating the final rule as a key foundation for how stablecoin economics will be regulated under U.S. oversight.
Further, the OCC’s work may not be the last major step. The article notes that other parts of the U.S. government are expected to release GENIUS-related rules for the agencies within their jurisdiction, including the Federal Reserve and the Treasury. For market participants, that multi-agency rollout is important: compliance requirements and interpretive standards may evolve as each agency fills in details about stablecoin operations, custody, and related financial controls.
Broader policy pressure: clarity legislation still in play
The yield debate is also playing out alongside broader efforts to set crypto market structure rules. The article points to ongoing discussions around the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a bill currently in limbo after a failed procedure vote in the Senate last month.
That matters because stablecoin regulation does not exist in isolation. Even where GENIUS provides a focused regime for payment stablecoins, additional market-structure legislation could influence how participants think about token issuance, exchanges, distribution partners, and compliance obligations—areas that the ABA specifically references when describing indirect arrangements involving affiliates, exchanges, and other distribution partners.
For readers and stakeholders, the next phase to watch is how other agencies—particularly the Federal Reserve and Treasury—respond to the same yield question and whether their rules expand, narrow, or diverge from the OCC’s interpretation. Until then, the central uncertainty highlighted by banking groups is whether market participants will be able to approximate yield economics without triggering the statutory prohibition.
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