Briefings

The GENIUS Act directs regulators to treat permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs) as "financial institutions" under the Bank Secrecy Act [1][2]. Consequently, issuers must maintain an effective customer identification program (CIP) [1] and are subject to proposed anti-money laundering obligations [2]. Issuers must also maintain effective sanctions compliance programs [2]. Prudential regulators are implementing corresponding BSA and sanctions compliance standards for issuers within their jurisdictions — the OCC for OCC-supervised issuers [3] and the FDIC for FDIC-supervised issuers [4]. The FinCEN/OCC CIP rule was jointly issued with the Board, FDIC, and NCUA [1].

The tracked rules impose Bank Secrecy Act obligations chiefly on **permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs)** under the GENIUS Act: - **Treatment as BSA financial institutions**, triggering anti-money-laundering/CFT program obligations [2][5]. - An **effective customer identification program** [5]. - **Sanctions compliance programs** administered with OFAC [2]. - **BSA and sanctions compliance standards** set by prudential regulators for issuers in their jurisdiction — the OCC for OCC-supervised issuers [4] and the FDIC for FDIC-supervised issuers [6]. These come from joint/coordinated FinCEN, OFAC, OCC, and FDIC rulemakings [2][4][5][6]. (The SEC's Regulation Crypto Assets [1] concerns securities offering exemptions, not BSA obligations.)

Three agencies show active **2026** crypto rulemaking: - **SEC** — proposed "Regulation Crypto Assets," a tailored offering regime with two Securities Act registration exemptions ($5M/4-yr and $75M/12-mo), narrative disclosures, and a conditional safe harbor from the "investment contract" definition of "security" [4]. - **CFTC** — its Innovation Advisory Committee is discussing crypto assets (alongside AI and prediction markets) and recent CFTC market activity [5]. - **FDIC** — proposed new reporting forms/instructions for permitted payment stablecoin issuers under the Paperwork Reduction Act [6]. Earlier, **FinCEN** (Treasury) proposed reporting/recordkeeping for bank/MSB convertible virtual currency transactions involving unhosted wallets, but that dates to 2021 [3].

No. None of the tracked rules in this corpus address custody or safeguarding of digital assets specifically. The digital-asset-related items cover other topics: a proposed crypto-asset offering/exemption regime with disclosure requirements and an "investment contract" safe harbor [2]; licensing/registration to issue payment stablecoins under the GENIUS Act [3]; reporting forms for permitted payment stablecoin issuers [5]; listing criteria for options on trusts holding multiple crypto assets [4]; and portfolio/cross-margining of securities and derivatives [6]. None of these speaks to custody or safeguarding of digital assets.

Key items for a digital-asset exchange to monitor: - **GENIUS Act rules (Treasury):** proposed regulations implementing statutory prohibitions and limitations on payment stablecoin issuance, offer, and sale in the U.S. — directly relevant to what an exchange can list, offer, or sell [6]. - **Issuer reporting regimes:** new weekly and quarterly reporting forms required of permitted payment stablecoin issuers under both the FDIC [3] and the OCC [4]. The OCC rules also cover foreign payment stablecoin issuers [4]. So watch the "permitted" vs. prohibited issuance boundary under the GENIUS Act [6], and whether the stablecoins you list come from issuers meeting FDIC/OCC reporting and supervisory requirements [3][4].