US quietly eases stablecoin reserve rules as banks warn billions could shift away from lending

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent compared the GENIUS Act to the National Currency Act of 1863 on Oct. 21, the day the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released its 721-page stablecoin final rule.He called the law a cornerstone of America's position as the world's crypto capital.The American Bankers Association (ABA) responded the same day, saying the final rule gives indirect stablecoin rewards room and invites deposit flight that would weaken bank lending.As Eleanor Terrett reported, the ABA said:“Attempting to address deposit flight and economic harm after it has occurred is the wrong approach.”The 1863 law standardized money issued by national banks, and the new rule standardizes money issued by a new class of regulated payment stablecoin issuers.The OCC left the statute's ban on issuers paying interest or yield for holding or using their tokens in place. It dropped a proposed rebuttable presumption aimed at rewards routed through affiliates and intermediaries, and it chose case-by-case review while declining to exempt existing rewards programs.The ABA objects to that choice, and the defensible description is that the rule lets third-party reward arrangements be j...