The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the U.S. banking regulator, issued its final rule implementing the GENIUS Act on Wednesday. The rule sets out the requirements that payment stablecoin issuers under OCC oversight will have to meet when the law takes effect on January 18, 2027, the agency announced.

The rule sets standards for reserves, redemption, risk management, custody and capital, but leaves anti-money laundering and sanctions rules to a separate rulemaking with the Treasury Department. The OCC said it will announce separately when it starts accepting applications and waiver requests from prospective stablecoin issuers.

The GENIUS Act is the first comprehensive federal framework for payment stablecoins, a category of token designed to hold a steady value, typically pegged to the U.S. dollar. For issuers seeking federal approval, the OCC will be the gatekeeper.

The rule applies to payment stablecoin issuers that fall under the OCC's jurisdiction, including subsidiaries of national banks and federal savings associations, nonbank issuers approved at the federal level and some state-qualified issuers. It also covers foreign issuers and certain custody activities at OCC-supervised firms, according to an OCC bulletin.

. @USComptroller Jonathan V. Gould: Today’s final rule advances @POTUS Trump’s and @SecScottBessent’s vision for American leadership in digital assets. We are providing a clear, practical framework for payment stablecoin innovation, with strong standards for reserve backing,… pic.twitter.com/k1vfHYLUMQ

— OCC (@USOCC) October 21, 2026

Most of the new requirements sit in a newly created section of the OCC's regulations covering reserve assets, redemption, risk management, audits and reporting, custody, applications, the supervision of foreign issuers, and a capital and operational backstop for issuers. The rule also addresses how state-qualified issuers transition to the federal framework, and the circumstances in which the OCC can revoke an issuer's approval.

Rules on the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering and sanctions are not included in the final rule. They will be addressed in a separate rulemaking developed with the Treasury Department.

"We are providing a clear, practical framework for payment stablecoin innovation, with strong standards for reserve backing, redemption, and risk management," said Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent compared the GENIUS Act to President Abraham Lincoln's National Currency Act of 1863, which "established a national framework for bank-issued currency."

The OCC received hundreds of comments on its proposal from crypto companies, community bankers, trade groups and academics, among others. Citing "the nascency of the industry," the agency said it would monitor how the sector develops and adjust its framework where necessary.

The road to GENIUS rules

Signed into law in July 2025 after clearing both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support, the GENIUS Act bars anyone other than a permitted issuer from issuing a payment stablecoin in the U.S. It also stops digital asset service providers from offering or selling stablecoins to Americans unless the tokens come from a permitted issuer or a foreign issuer that meets certain requirements.

The OCC proposed its rules in February, opening a 60-day comment period. Like the final rule, the proposal left out anti-money laundering and sanctions provisions, which the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) proposed separately in April. Those measures would require issuers to run anti-money laundering programs, report suspicious activity and maintain sanctions compliance programs.

Regulators missed the law's earlier July deadline for finalizing their rules. In August, Gould said the OCC was "very intent on moving quickly and getting a final rule out by November so that we will be able to start processing applications within the new year." With the rule finalized, the remaining milestones are the OCC's announcement on applications and waiver requests and the Treasury's pending anti-money laundering and sanctions rulemaking — the outstanding pieces before the framework goes live in January 2027.