Financial Regulators Propose Customer-ID Rules for Stablecoin Issuers

FinCEN and four federal banking regulators jointly proposed treating payment stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act.

Under the proposed rulemaking, FinCEN, the OCC, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and the National Credit Union Administration would require issuers to maintain an effective anti-money laundering customer identification program under the GENIUS Act (See also accompanying Fact Sheet.) The proposal would require "permitted payment stablecoins issuers" to have reasonable procedures for verifying the identity of anyone opening an account, keeping records of how identity was verified, checking customers against government lists, and giving customers notice.

The proposal would also cover issuers that opt for state supervision, an option open to issuers with no more than $10 billion in stablecoins outstanding.

The proposal follows a separate FinCEN and Treasury sanctions-office proposal that would require stablecoin issuers to maintain anti-money-laundering and sanctions-compliance programs (see prior coverage).