US Banks Push to Delay GENIUS Act Rules as White House Resists
Major US banking trade associations submitted a formal letter on April 22 requesting that federal regulators extend public comment periods on three stablecoin rule proposals under the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin oversight law signed in July 2025. The American Bankers Association and the Bank Policy Institute, among others, directed the request to the Treasury Department, the FDIC, FinCEN, and the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The White House, according to reporting by Crypto.news, has told the banking industry to stand down.
The Procedural Case for Delay
The banks’ argument is procedural rather than substantive. Their letter states that the Treasury, FDIC, OFAC, and FinCEN proposals are “directly contingent on the OCC’s final framework,” meaning that commenting on those rules before the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency finalises its own supervisory standards would produce fragmented, incomplete feedback. The associations requested at least 60 additional days after the OCC concludes its rulemaking, a standard extension that federal agencies have granted before on technically complex proposals. The combined regulatory agenda, the letter noted, represents a “body of regulatory work of extraordinary scope and complexity,” with further proposals potentially still to come from the Federal Reserve.
The three rules at the centre of the dispute are substantively linked. Treasury’s April 1 proposal establishes how state regulatory regimes could be deemed “substantially similar” to the federal standard, capping eligible issuers at no more than $10 billion in outstanding issuance and requiring approval from a Stablecoin Certification Review Committee. Treasury itself warned that weak state enforcement could produce a race to the bottom. The FDIC proposal sets standards for agency-regulated stablecoin issuers, while the joint FinCEN and OFAC proposal addresses anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance. As CoinDesk reported, the core concern is that agencies are advancing quickly on interconnected rules in ways that make their interaction difficult to assess.
Bitcoin BTC$61,993.00▲0.32%
Ethereum ETH$1,646.81▼0.02%
Tether USDT$0.9992▼0.02%
BNB BNB$592.11▲0.43%
USDC USDC$0.9999▲0.02%
XRP XRP$1.13▼1.79%
Solana SOL$65.03▼0.90%
TRON TRX$0.3215▼0.43%
Figure Heloc FIGR_HELOC$1.03▲0.49%
Dogecoin DOGE$0.0845▼1.13%Treasury Secretary Bessent Pushes Back in Senate Testimony
The delay request arrived on the same day Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. Bessent used the session to press for passage of comprehensive crypto legislation, framing US leadership in digital assets as both an economic and national security priority. “When the United States leads in best practices, safety and soundness in the financial world, whether it’s our banking system, our securities, or now digital assets, it is important for the US to lead,” Bessent said. He described blockchain as a “payment rail” and argued that domestic regulation would bring crypto activity under anti-money laundering and know-your-customer frameworks, reinforcing the dollar’s reserve currency status.
The broader legislative picture remains complicated. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act passed the House in July 2025 by a 294-134 vote but has not received a Senate Banking Committee markup, partly due to the committee’s focus on housing legislation. The Senate Agriculture Committee advanced a separate version, the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act, in January 2026 on a 12-11 party-line vote. TD Cowen has identified five remaining hurdles beyond the stablecoin yield dispute, including a lack of confirmed CFTC commissioners and concerns around Iran’s use of crypto payments. The banks seeking a comment period extension are simultaneously engaged in a separate dispute with the crypto industry over the CLARITY Act, a conflict that has already slowed that bill’s progress, as detailed in earlier coverage of the stablecoin yield standoff. The GENIUS Act is designed to produce a full national framework before 2027; how much the banking sector’s procedural resistance compresses that timeline is a question regulators have not yet answered publicly.
