Stablecoins moving into banks
US regulators are starting to fold stablecoins into traditional banking rules rather than leave them in a gray zone, which will change how fintechs build settlement plumbing. The FDIC published a 191‑page proposed rule under the GENIUS Act and the Treasury has proposed AML rules that would subject stablecoin issuers to Bank Secrecy Act‑style controls, pushing coin issuers toward bank‑grade supervision and auditability. That shift reduces regulatory uncertainty for firms that want bank-compatible settlement but raises compliance burdens and design constraints for wallet, treasury and custody products. ( )
A dollar stablecoin used to sit in a half-lit room between crypto rules and bank rules. This week, United States regulators started dragging it into the bank lobby. (fdic.gov 1) (fdic.gov 2) On April 7, 2026, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation approved a 191-page proposed rule for the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for United States Stablecoins Act, the 2025 law that created a federal framework for payment stablecoins. The rule covers permitted payment stablecoin issuers and insured banks that issue, custody, or hold reserves for those coins. (fdic.gov 1) (fdic.gov 2) (fdic.gov 3) The basic idea is simple: if a token says it is worth $1, regulators want the cash and short-term safe assets behind it to look more like a bank reserve stack than a startup promise. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation proposal sets standards for reserve assets, redemption, capital, permissible activities, and risk management. (fdic.gov) (theblock.co) It also reaches the boring plumbing that usually gets ignored until something breaks. The proposal sets requirements for custodial and safekeeping services and clarifies how deposit insurance applies when a bank holds reserve deposits for a stablecoin issuer. (fdic.gov) (bankingdive.com) That last part matters because stablecoins and tokenized deposits are not the same thing. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said the rule also addresses tokenized deposits, which remain deposits under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act even when the claim is represented with a token. (fdic.gov) (bankingdive.com) A second rule is closing the other big gap: crime controls. Treasury’s proposed anti-money-laundering rule would treat permitted payment stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act, the same core law that forces banks to monitor customers, keep records, and report suspicious activity. (regreport.info) (finadium.com) (cointelegraph.com) So a stablecoin issuer that once mostly worried about code, custody, and redemptions now also has to think like a bank compliance department. That means customer checks, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, audit trails, and exam-ready documentation instead of a light-touch crypto compliance stack. (regreport.info) (finadium.com) The law behind this shift is not brand new. Congress enacted the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for United States Stablecoins Act on July 18, 2025, and federal agencies have been filling in the operating manual ever since, including a December 16, 2025 proposal on how Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation supervised institutions can apply to issue payment stablecoins through a subsidiary. (fdic.gov 1) (fdic.gov 2) The result is that fintech firms building wallets, treasury tools, and settlement rails now have a clearer target. If they want a coin that banks can comfortably touch, the product has to be built for reserves, redemptions, recordkeeping, and supervision from day one, not patched in after launch. (fdic.gov) (occ.gov) That does not automatically make stablecoins simple or cheap. It makes them legible to bank examiners, which is useful for institutions that want twenty-four-hour settlement and programmable cash, but it also pushes issuers toward higher compliance costs, tighter product design, and fewer gray-area experiments. (fdic.gov) (regreport.info)
