FDIC advances BSA rule for bank-linked stablecoins

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation moved on May 22 to put bank-linked stablecoin issuers under the same anti-money laundering and sanctions framework that already applies across much of the banking system. The agency’s board approved a notice of proposed rulemaking for FDIC-supervised permitted payment stablecoin issuers, or PPSIs, under the GENIUS Act. (fdic.gov) The proposal is narrower than a market-wide crypto rule. The FDIC said it applies to PPSIs that it supervises as the primary federal regulator — specifically subsidiaries of insured state nonmember banks and state savings associations that the agency has approved to issue payment stablecoins. (fdic.gov) Here’s the practical thread. 1/ The FDIC did not finalize a new stablecoin AML rule on May 22. It approved a proposed rule and opened it for comment. Comments will be accepted for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. 2/ The target is a specific class of issuer: FDIC-supervised permitted payment stablecoin issuers. (fdic.gov) Under the GENIUS Act, permitted issuers can include bank subsidiaries, federal-qualified nonbanks and some state-qualified issuers, but this FDIC proposal covers the slice the FDIC directly supervises. 3/ The core change is straightforward. The FDIC said the proposed rule would require covered issuers to comply with applicable rules on anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism and economic sanctions programs. (fdic.gov) It also points to reporting requirements established by Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. 4/ In plain terms, that means a bank-linked stablecoin issuer under FDIC supervision would need the sort of compliance stack banks already build around customer risk, suspicious activity monitoring, sanctions screening, controls, governance and reporting. The FDIC also said the proposal would align supervision and enforcement provisions for those AML/CFT programs with FinCEN requirements. (fdic.gov) 5/ This is one piece of a larger GENIUS Act rollout. On April 7, the FDIC approved a separate proposed rule covering reserve assets, redemption, capital, risk management, custody-related requirements and deposit-insurance treatment for certain stablecoin reserves and tokenized deposits. That proposal is already in the Federal Register, with comments due June 9. (fdic.gov) 6/ The sequencing matters because the FDIC is building the bank-side framework in parts: first application procedures in a December 2025 proposal, then broader prudential standards in April 2026, and now BSA/sanctions compliance in the May 22 proposal. The agency described the April rule as its second GENIUS Act rulemaking. (fdic.gov) 7/ The legal hook is the GENIUS Act itself. Congress.gov shows the bill became Public Law 119-27 on July 18, 2025, establishing a federal framework for payment stablecoins and defining the Bank Secrecy Act in the statute’s terms section. 8/ What happens next is procedural, not immediate. (fdic.gov) The BSA/sanctions proposal still has to be published in the Federal Register, gather comments and then return to the FDIC in final-rule form if the agency decides to proceed. The April 10 FDIC proposal tied to the same law remains open for comment until June 9, 2026, and the new AML/sanctions proposal will have its own 60-day comment clock once published. (fdic.gov) (congress.gov) (federalregister.gov)