The main U.S. national-bank regulator, the OCC, has issued a final rule for issuers of dollar payment stablecoins, and dropped its plan to presume that some rewards payments break the law. It announced the rule on 21 October 2026, according to its news release. The text binds no one until 18 January 2027.
The OCC says the GENIUS Act takes effect the same day, 18 months after its 18 July 2025 enactment.
Yesterday’s note on Treasury’s section 3 proposal covers a different rule from a different agency.
The rule text adds 12 CFR part 15 and revises parts 3, 6, 8, and 19, docket OCC-2025-0372, RIN 1557-AF41. The 2 March 2026 proposal, 91 FR 10202, drew about 328 comments, due 1 May 2026, with late letters read through 1 July and no extension. Bank Secrecy Act work, anti-money-laundering rules, and OFAC sanctions stay in a separate Treasury proposal from 24 June 2026, 91 FR 37840. The OCC will keep working with the other agencies on the Act.
Who will have to follow it
From 18 January 2027, Bulletin 2026-50 says, the duties reach national banks and the subsidiaries under them, federal savings associations and theirs, and federal branches of foreign banks and theirs. They also reach issuers based abroad, nonbanks seeking or holding approval as federal qualified issuers, and state-qualified issuers where the Act gives the OCC a regulatory or enforcement role.
Rewards stay a case-by-case call
Section 4(a)(11) will bar a permitted issuer from paying interest or yield “solely” for holding, using, or keeping the coin.
The March draft presumed a violation unless the issuer showed otherwise, if a deal paid an affiliate or a related company that then paid holders only for holding the coin. The final text drops that presumption. There is no example list. A middleman payment might be only for holding, use, or retention, or it might also, at least in part, have another purpose. The OCC will judge each deal in applications and in supervision, and it may act, publish guidance, or write a later rule.
Anti-evasion power stays. Paying through an agent only because someone holds the coin is covered, and so is paying another company to do what the issuer could not. Older programs are not presumed to comply. Congress wrote no exemption, and the ban stands until the statute changes.
Two business days to pay holders
From 18 January 2027 a payout must come within two business days of the request. Sooner is allowed. Later needs an extension. Weekends and U.S. federal holidays do not count. The clock starts when the order arrives and, if signup will not stall customers even in a rush, when onboarding and the other legal conditions are met. It stops when the issuer starts the transfer or credits an account it holds for the customer. Arrival does not count, so a cross-border payout gets no extra days.
The draft would have added seven calendar days on its own if one day’s orders topped 10 percent of that issuer’s coins outstanding. That add-on is gone, because it could speed a run. If one day’s orders instead top 10 percent of any one brand, the issuer must tell its OCC office within 24 hours and may ask for more time. The OCC may grant that, deny it, or set a limit under section 4(a)(1)(B)(i). That limit should be rare and should not worsen a run. For a state-qualified issuer, the Federal Reserve or the home-state regulator may set a limit as well.
What must back the coin
From 18 January 2027, coins outstanding need identifiable reserves of at least one to one at all times, in assets the Act names, kept apart from the issuer’s own money and held by the issuer or an eligible custodian. On top of a principles-based spread, two figures apply. At least 5 percent of reserves must be demand deposits, other deposits withdrawable at any time, share-account funds payable on demand, or a balance at a Federal Reserve Bank, down from 10 percent in the draft because of new stress tests and a duty to turn reserves into cash.
No counterparty may hold more than 40 percent, aside from the U.S. government, a custodian counted only for holding the assets, and centrally cleared repurchase trades plus the reverse of those trades. Direct holdings sit outside that cap. Money at a Federal Reserve Bank stays in. Stress tests include a rate jump and must show reserves still cover the coins.
A floor of US$5 million
The US$5 million capital floor, limited in the draft to about the first three years after a license, now lasts the life of the issuer. A complex issuer may have to hold more.
Issuers already operating, and the waiver
From 18 January 2027, issuing a payment stablecoin into the U.S. market without permitted-issuer approval carries criminal penalties. Companies already at work here get no phase-in.
Bulletin 2026-51 says section 5(f) lets a primary federal payment-stablecoin regulator waive Act requirements for up to 12 months. That can cover a subsidiary whose insured-depository parent has an application pending for it on the start date, or an applicant for federal qualified-issuer status with an application already pending. The OCC may waive for the subsidiary. It may not waive for an issuer that is itself the insured institution. Under section 15.30(g), an issuer with a file already complete enough for a decision may ask in writing.
The OCC generally expects to waive prior approval for issuers already operating in the United States that filed before the start date, unless a stronger reason to refuse appears. It will not waive other duties after 18 months to prepare, and companies not yet issuing here should wait for approval, as a new bank waits for a charter. Decisions are on the merits, generally by 18 January 2027, and only for as long as needed. Intake waits on approval of the forms by the Office of Management and Budget. A press release will name the day. No date is set.
The OCC expects to update the rule and to issue guidance as practice changes. For a holder of a dollar stablecoin, the rule sets how fast an OCC-supervised issuer must pay and what must back the coin. For someone paid rewards on an exchange, whether the program continues depends on a case-by-case review.
This article is not investment advice.
