September’s rulemaking was unusually heavy, but the direction is consistent: regulators are widening access to payment systems while lessening regulatory reach and discretion. The competitive question is no longer whether nonbanks will get access to these systems, but how community banks respond to their customers’ demands and the rapidly changing
The Federal Reserve proposed rules to set prudential standards for stablecoin issuers under its supervision, including reserve requirements, capital standards, and risk management expectations. The proposal requires full backing with short-term Treasury bills and other high-quality liquid assets, with a 2% capital charge on certain reserve assets and operational risk
The OCC conditionally approved national trust charters for Bastion Platforms, Catena, and Agora in September, all planning to expand stablecoin and crypto offerings under federal supervision. Bastion is converting from a New York state trust charter, while Catena and Agora are newly formed entities. Each must maintain $6-10 million in
The SEC issued a five-year exemptive order in September allowing “Tokenized Securities Venues” to facilitate permissioned trading of tokenized National Market System stock using automated market maker liquidity pools on public blockchains. The relief covers only secondary trading and excludes synthetic tokenized securities. Venues must verify that tokenized stock carries
The FDIC proposed a comprehensive overhaul of its bank merger review process in September, establishing firmer deadlines, creating a five-day “de minimis” track for very small transactions, and expanding the competitive analysis to include credit union deposits and centrally booked deposits. The proposal also relaxes the treatment of banks with
The OCC, Fed, FDIC, and NCUA proposed new interagency guidance on third-party risk management in September, replacing the 2023 guidance that banks said was overly broad and checklist-driven. The new guidance emphasizes risk identification and assessment, allowing banks to tailor oversight to the actual risk posed by each relationship. It
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors released a new supervisory framework on September 16, providing state examiners with a discretionary tool to identify and understand AI at financial institutions, assess associated risks, and determine when a deeper review may be appropriate. The framework is based on NIST’s AI Risk Management
The Senate failed to clear a procedural hurdle for the Clarity Act on September 15, with 49 votes in favor, short of the 60 needed. Democrats said ethics guardrails were not strong enough to prevent President Trump and other officials from profiting from crypto ventures. The bill would have established
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in September that the administration is working to raise dollar-based thresholds for currency transaction reports and suspicious activity reports, potentially accounting for the duration of customer relationships. The $10,000 CTR threshold has not been adjusted since the 1970s. What you should do: If thresholds rise,
The OCC, Fed, and FDIC issued an interim final rule in September amending eligibility requirements for the 18-month examination cycle, raising the asset threshold from $3 billion to $6 billion. An estimated 188 additional banks and savings associations will qualify. Banks must be well capitalized, have a management rating of
