OCC Drops the Stablecoin Rulebook: Full Reserves, 2-Business-Day Redemption Rules, Yield Fine Print

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) finalized rules Wednesday implementing the GENIUS Act for payment stablecoin reserves, redemptions and related custody activities, setting requirements for issuers under its supervision ahead of the Jan. 18, 2027 effective date. Issuers must maintain reserves worth at least as much as their outstanding stablecoins and generally process redemption requests within two business days. Signed into law in July 2025, the GENIUS Act limits U.S. payment stablecoin issuance to permitted issuers and restricts digital asset service providers from offering or selling stablecoins to Americans unless the tokens come from a permitted or qualifying foreign issuer.

The rule applies to national banks, federal savings associations, federal branches of foreign banks and their subsidiaries, as well as nonbank firms that seek or receive federal qualified issuer status. It also covers state-qualified issuers when the OCC has regulatory or enforcement authority over them, qualifying foreign payment stablecoin issuers and certain custody activities at OCC-supervised firms. New regulatory sections address reserve assets, redemption, risk management, audits and reporting, custody, applications, supervision of foreign issuers, transition to the federal framework, revocation of issuer approval and a capital and operational backstop.

“We are providing a clear, practical framework for payment stablecoin innovation, with strong standards for reserve backing, redemption, and risk management,” Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said. The OCC dropped a proposed presumption that certain arrangements involving affiliates or related third parties violate the law’s yield ban. The final rule retains the ban on issuers paying holders interest or yield solely for holding, using or retaining their stablecoins, and the