OCC finalises first GENIUS Act stablecoin rule, effective January 18, 2027

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published its final rule implementing the GENIUS Act on Wednesday, October 21. The primary document is OCC news release 2026-92, accompanied by Bulletin 2026-50 carrying the rule text and companion bulletins 2026-51 (waivers and applications) and 2026-52 (reporting forms). Both the rule and the statute take effect on January 18, 2027 — the first federal agency rulemaking out of the gate under the Trump-signed law.

What the rule covers

The final rule binds permitted payment stablecoin issuers under OCC jurisdiction and certain custody activities at OCC-supervised entities. Scope captures:

• National bank and federal savings association subsidiaries approved to issue payment stablecoins.
• Federally approved non-bank issuers.
• Certain state-qualified issuers moving to the federal framework.
• Foreign payment stablecoin issuers under OCC oversight.
• Custody conducted by national banks, federal savings associations and federal branches.

Operational chapters cover reserve assets, redemption, risk management, audits and reporting, custody, applications, foreign-issuer supervision, and a capital and operational backstop. The Bank Secrecy Act, AML and OFAC sanctions pieces are not in this rule — they will come in a separate rulemaking coordinated with the Treasury Department. FinCEN and OFAC proposed those in April 2026; neither is final.

Comptroller Jonathan V. Gould framed the release as "a clear, practical framework for payment stablecoin innovation." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent compared the GENIUS Act to the National Currency Act of 1863 in the same release.

What changed from the proposal

The OCC received hundreds of comment letters between the February proposal and this release. Three concrete changes between the proposed and final text:

1. Third-party rewards presumption removed. The proposal carried a rebuttable presumption that interest-like payments routed through a third party (an exchange, a wallet, a card issuer) counted as evasion of the GENIUS Act's ban on issuers paying interest directly. The final rule drops that presumption and shifts to case-by-case review. Named examples in circulation — Coinbase's USDC rewards and PayPal's PYUSD rewards — are now reviewable but not pre-empted. The OCC said it retains authority "to enforce against evasions of the act," per The Block.
2. Capital floor made permanent. The proposed $5 million minimum applied to the first three years of operation. In the final rule it stays permanent. Existing issuers can seek a temporary exemption if their application is "substantially complete."
3. Automatic seven-day redemption extension removed. The redemption window stays at two business days. The proposal's automatic seven-day stretch is gone; issuers must now request an extension from the OCC if redemptions exceed 10% of outstanding supply within 24 hours.

The Federal Reserve kept a similar third-party-rewards presumption in its own 24 September proposal. Comments on the Fed proposal are open until November 30.

Scope limits worth flagging

• No application window yet. The OCC said it will "announce separately" when it begins accepting applications and waiver requests.
• Reward programs run by third parties face OCC review but no bright-line ban. Operators of USDC and PYUSD reward schemes should expect inbound questions, not deadlines.
• BSA/AML/OFAC obligations remain outside the final rule and will arrive via a separate joint Treasury proceeding. Issuers waiting on the full compliance picture do not have it today.
• The rule applies only to issuers under OCC jurisdiction. State-qualified issuers can migrate to the federal framework under procedures the rule sets, but state frameworks are not pre-empted.

What to watch

1. The OCC's application-opening announcement — timing is the next material OCC action. Gould told the industry in August the agency intended to be out "by November" with a final rule; it hit that bar. The application window is next.
2. The Federal Reserve's own GENIUS Act rule, after comments close on November 30. If the Fed keeps the third-party presumption, Coinbase and PayPal face divergent treatment depending on which regulator oversees the counterparty.
3. The joint Treasury/FinCEN/OFAC AML rulemaking. Issuers awaiting a complete compliance stack cannot build to this rule alone.
4. Case-by-case action on existing rewards schemes. With no bright line, the first OCC determination on a specific programme will set the template.

Context

The OCC is the first of several federal agencies with GENIUS Act rulemaking obligations. The 15-month gap between Trump's July 18, 2025 signing of the statute and today's final rule — and the roughly 90 days still to run to the effective date — is why Gould hit the "November" deadline a few days early. Expect each remaining agency's proposal (Fed, Treasury/FinCEN, OFAC) to arrive on its own clock through winter, with the full compliance frame not in place when the statute itself takes effect in January.