SIFMA Submits Recommendations to the OCC on Implementation of the GENIUS Act

Washington, D.C., May 1, 2026 - SIFMA and SIFMA AMG today submitted a letter in response to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) proposal implementing the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act for the issuance of stablecoins by entities subject to OCC jurisdiction.

SIFMA supports the development of a credible, risk-sensitive prudential framework for payment stablecoin activity and commends the OCC for advancing a proposal that recognizes the multi-party nature of the payment stablecoin ecosystem and the need for clear supervisory standards governing issuers, custodians, and other participants.

SIFMA believes that the proposal would benefit from additional clarification, more targeted calibration, and, in some cases, treatment that better reflects differences across issuer types. SIFMA recommends that the same risk, same activity, and same regulatory outcome principle apply across issuer types; that the final rule provides clear standards for compliance and supervision while preserving room for market development; and that the OCC coordinate closely with the other GENIUS Act regulatory agencies and, where appropriate, with the SEC and CFTC.

"SIFMA welcomes the OCC's proposal as a strong foundation for the federal regulation of payment stablecoins," said Peter Ryan, SIFMA managing director, head of digital assets and international prudential policy. "Given the projected scale of payment stablecoin issuance and its potential interaction with short-dated Treasury and repo markets, careful calibration of the final rule will be essential to support both safe and sound issuance and the continued resilience of U.S. capital markets."

SIFMA's recommendations include the following:

Scope and Covered Entities: The OCC should clarify the scope of the proposal's application to covered entities and the allocation of regulatory responsibility across issuers, custodians, distributors, wallet providers, and payment intermediaries. The OCC should also provide clear guidance on identifying compliant payment stablecoins as tokens circulate across distributed ledger networks and intermediary platforms, and establish reasonable transition periods for requirements that necessitate significant operational buildout or industry coordination.

Definitions: The definition of "distributed ledger" should not inadvertently exclude permissioned or private ledger architectures. The $10 billion federal oversight threshold should be strengthened to close potential arbitrage pathways through multi-entity structuring. SIFMA supports the OCC's proposed approach to multi-brand stablecoin issuance, subject to appropriate reserve segregation and brand-specific transparency requirements.

Permitted Activities: The OCC should calibrate affiliate transaction restrictions to issuer organizational form to avoid both duplicative obligations for bank-affiliated permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs) and insufficient specificity for nonbank PPSIs. The OCC should also confirm that PPSIs may engage only in the activities permitted by the GENIUS Act, with any additional activities conducted through a separate legal entity, and clarify the authority of federally supervised digital asset service providers to engage in GENIUS Act activities.

Reserve Assets: SIFMA recommends removing assets held in custody from the proposed 40 percent single-institution concentration limit, increasing the weighted average maturity limit from 20 days to 60 days to align with the statutory 93-day maturity ceiling and the framework applicable to government money market funds, and broadening the weekly liquidity requirement to include any eligible reserve asset convertible to cash within five business days. The OCC should also confirm that money market funds investing exclusively in GENIUS Act-permitted assets receive treatment comparable to the underlying assets.

Redemption Requirements: The OCC should remove the automatic seven-day redemption extension triggered by a 10 percent outflow threshold, which risks encouraging preemptive redemptions and worsening run dynamics, and could transmit pressure to short-dated Treasury and repo markets. The final rule should instead emphasize ex ante liquidity planning, stress testing, and supervisory escalation triggers.

Custody: The OCC should clarify the interaction of the proposal's custody and control concepts with existing legal and regulatory frameworks-including broker-dealer custody standards-and permit omnibus account structures subject to adequate control, reconciliation, and recordkeeping. The OCC should also impose strong capital requirements for self-custody of reserve assets, confirm that reserve cash may be held as general deposits, and coordinate with the SEC and FINRA on custody definitions and segregation standards.

Operational Backstop and Capital Requirements: The OCC should clarify the expected insolvency and bankruptcy treatment of reserves, the capital treatment of third-party payment stablecoin exposures held by banking organizations, and the application of the operational backstop to rapidly scaling and de novo issuers. The OCC should also confirm that the operational backstop must be funded with capital rather than debt and should look through to capture material operational expenses booked at the affiliate level.

The letter is available at the following link: https://www.sifma.org/advocacy/letters/occ-notice-of-proposed-rulemaking-implementation-of-the-genius-act-for-stablecoin-issuance

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SIFMA is the leading trade association for broker-dealers, investment banks and asset managers operating in the U.S. and global capital markets. On behalf of our industry's one million employees, we advocate on legislation, regulation and business policy affecting retail and institutional investors, equity and fixed income markets and related products and services. We serve as an industry coordinating body to promote fair and orderly markets, informed regulatory compliance, and efficient market operations and resiliency. We also provide a forum for industry policy and professional development. SIFMA, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA).