Comptroller of the Currency finalizes payment stablecoin rule for January 2027

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a final rule implementing the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act for the issuance of payment stablecoins by entities under its jurisdiction, including a prohibition on paying interest or yield to holders. The rule was published in the Federal Register of 23 October 2026 (Vol. 91, No. 204, p. 67000) as document 2026-21706, under docket OCC-2025-0372 and RIN 1557-AF41, and becomes effective on 18 January 2027.

The GENIUS Act (12 U.S.C. 5901 et seq.) was enacted on 18 July 2025 and set a regulatory framework for payment stablecoin activities, leaving the specific capital, liquidity and operational requirements to rules issued by the primary Federal payment stablecoin regulator. The OCC published its proposal on 2 March 2026 (91 FR 10202) and received approximately 328 comments; the formal comment period closed on 1 May 2026, although the agency continued to accept late comments until 1 July 2026. The final rule amends 12 CFR parts 3, 6, 8, 15 and 19 and was signed by Jonathan V. Gould, Comptroller of the Currency.

One-to-one reserves with a five percent daily liquidity floor

Reserve assets must be identifiable, segregated from the issuer’s other assets and hold a total fair value that equals or exceeds outstanding issuance value at all times. Eligible reserves are limited to:

• United States coins and currency, or balances at a Federal Reserve Bank;
• demand deposits or insured shares at an insured depository institution;
• Treasury bills, notes or bonds with a remaining maturity of 93 days or less;
• overnight repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements backed by such Treasuries;
• shares of registered Government money market funds invested solely in those assets;
• any other similarly liquid Federal Government-issued asset approved by the OCC;
• the same assets held in tokenized form.

The OCC kept a principles-based diversification standard but added two quantitative limits: at least 5 percent of reserves must sit in immediately available funds, down from the 10 percent proposed, and exposure to any single counterparty is capped at 40 percent of reserves, with carve-outs for the United States Government, qualifying custodians and centrally cleared repo. Issuers must publish the monthly composition of their reserves on their website by noon on the last day of each month.

Redemption within two business days and the yield ban

Timely redemption may not exceed two business days following the redemption request, and issuers must disclose their redemption policy, fees and the minimum number of stablecoins they will redeem, which cannot exceed one unit. An issuer must notify the OCC through its supervisory office within 24 hours if it receives redemption requests above 10 percent of the outstanding issuance value of any brand in a single 24-hour period, and may then request an extension of the redemption timeframe.

The rule bars issuers from paying any form of interest or yield, in cash, tokens or other consideration, solely in connection with the holding, use or retention of a payment stablecoin. The OCC eliminated the rebuttable presumption for affiliate and third-party arrangements that the proposal had included, while retaining its anti-evasion authority under section 4(h)(1) of the Act; interest on deposits, including tokenized deposits, falls outside the prohibition.

Capital, custody and foreign issuers

Issuers must hold minimum capital of no less than $5 million and an operational backstop equal to 12 months of total expenses, funded by highly liquid assets; debt instruments may cover no more than 50 percent of that backstop. Self-custody of reserves remains permitted, and the 40 percent counterparty limit does not apply to custodians that meet the rule’s conditions.

Foreign payment stablecoin issuers must register with the OCC under section 18(c) of the GENIUS Act, grant the agency prompt access to books, records and personnel, consent to United States jurisdiction and file monthly reports on stablecoins held by United States customers and on the size, composition, location and tenor of their reserves. The OCC will publish on occ.gov a list of foreign issuers whose registrations it has approved.

The rule locks in the Federal framework months before the statutory effective date and gives bank and nonbank issuers, fintechs and crypto firms a single set of reserve, redemption and disclosure standards to build against, while leaving anti-money-laundering requirements and the treatment of non-compliant foreign stablecoins to separate rulemakings.

Source: Federal Register, Vol. 91, No. 204, 23 October 2026, Rules and Regulations, p. 67000 (official reference: 2026-21706).