HR 2392119th CongressIntroduced

STABLE Act of 2025

Introduced: Mar 26, 2025

Financial Services

Standard Summary

Comprehensive overview in 1-2 paragraphs

The STABLE Act of 2025 creates a comprehensive federal framework to regulate payment stablecoins—digital assets designed for payments and denominated in a national currency. It establishes who may issue these coins, sets strict reserve and disclosure standards, and assigns a coordinated regulatory regime involving federal banking regulators and state authorities. Key aims are to prevent fraud or instability, ensure that stablecoins are backed by 1-to-1 reserves, require ongoing transparency, and limit the activities of stablecoin issuers to what is deemed necessary for safe operations. The bill would also require compliance with anti-money-laundering laws, sanctions regimes, and would prohibit issuers from paying interest on stablecoins. It includes transition rules, oversight mechanisms, and penalties for violations. In short, the bill seeks to bring stablecoins used for everyday payments into a tightly regulated system with clear issuer eligibility, rigorous reserve requirements, regular reporting, and strong supervisory oversight to reduce risk to users and the broader financial system.

Key Points

1Issuer eligibility and scope: Only “permitted payment stablecoin issuers” (subsidiaries of insured depository institutions, Federal qualified nonbank issuers, or State qualified issuers) may issue payment stablecoins in the United States; custodial intermediaries have an 18-month window to align with this restriction; foreign regimes can be treated as comparable if they meet certain standards and consent to reporting and examination.
2Reserve backing and disclosures: Each permitted issuer must back outstanding stablecoins on a 1-to-1 basis with specified assets (cash, certain deposits at insured institutions, short-term Treasury securities, eligible repurchase agreements secured by short Treasuries, or money-market-fund–like securities). Issuers must publicly disclose redemption policies, maintain timely redemption procedures, and publish monthly on their site a detailed reserve composition and outstanding supply. Reserves may not be rehypothecated.
3Regulatory framework and certification: A dual system of federal and state regulation is established. Primary federal regulators (including the Comptroller of the Currency, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and NCUA) supervise issuers, with state regulators certifying that state regimes meet or exceed federal standards. There are processes for certification, changes, possible rejection with cure periods, and appeals.
4Compliance, governance, and risk management: Issuers must comply with Bank Secrecy Act requirements (AML/CTF programs, recordkeeping, suspicious activity monitoring, customer identification), sanctions laws, and undergo monthly independent audits of reserve and reporting data. They are subject to capital, liquidity, risk management, and cybersecurity standards tailored to their risk profile, as determined by the regulators, with rules harmonized across federal and state regimes. Issuers cannot pay yields on stablecoins.
5Penalties and enforcement: Violations can trigger civil penalties (up to $100,000 per day for improper issuance or offerings) and significant criminal penalties for false certifications related to monthly reports (up to $1,000,000–$5,000,000 fines and up to 10–20 years in prison, depending on the violation). Individuals with certain felonies may be barred from serving as officers or directors of issuers. Misrepresentation of insured status is prohibited and subject to multiple enforcement avenues.

Impact Areas

Primary group/area affected- Permitted payment stablecoin issuers (and their custodial intermediaries during the transition): insured depository institution subsidiaries, Federal qualified nonbank issuers, and State qualified issuers become subject to detailed reserve, disclosure, capital, liquidity, and governance requirements; their products (stablecoins) face strict regulatory standards and ongoing supervision.Secondary group/area affected- Federal and state regulators: primary federal regulators (and state regulators) gain new or expanded authority to license, certify, supervise, and coordinate regulation of payment stablecoins; they will issue joint rules covering reserves, capital, risk management, and compliance programs.- Custodial intermediaries and payment networks: platforms that offer stablecoins for payment or redemption will need to ensure only permitted issuers are involved, within 18 months, and adjust operations to align with custody, reporting, and disclosure requirements.Additional impacts- Consumers and businesses using stablecoins: greater transparency about reserves, redemption policies, and risk; clearer expectations about redeemability and regulatory oversight; an explicit prohibition on earning yields on stablecoins may affect demand and the design of stablecoin products.- Foreign issuers and regimes: the act contemplates exemptions for certain foreign issuers if their regulatory regime is deemed comparable, creating a pathway for some international players to operate under U.S. conditions with reporting and examination obligations.- Market infrastructure and legal clarity: standardized definitions and a centralized framework aim to reduce legal uncertainty around stablecoins, arm’s-length regulatory oversight, and potential cross-border issues. The act also clarifies that stablecoins are not insured deposits or government-backed guarantees, with mandatory disclosures to prevent misleading claims.

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