U.S. regulators have proposed requiring certain payment stablecoin issuers to run formal Customer Identification Programs before establishing account relationships with users. The measure is part of the GENIUS Act framework and would classify permitted payment stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act.
The joint proposal was issued by the Federal Reserve Board, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the National Credit Union Administration. In a notice spanning 117 pages, the agencies said public comments will be accepted for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
Issuers would need to verify core customer details
Under the proposal, covered issuers would collect and verify customer information before opening an account relationship. The required data would generally include a customer’s name, address, date of birth or formation, and an identification number. The agencies said issuers must adopt risk-based procedures that support a reasonable belief they know the true identity of each customer.
Those procedures would depend on the issuer’s own profile. Regulators said size, business model, customer base, account types, and account-opening methods should all shape the design of a compliance program. NCUA Chairman Kyle Hauptman said the proposal reflects existing customer identification standards used by credit unions and is intended to pull permitted payment stablecoin issuers fully into the Bank Secrecy Act framework.
Most secondary market activity would sit outside the rule
The proposal draws a clear line between direct contact with an issuer and transactions that happen elsewhere in the market. Customer identification requirements would apply when a user forms a formal relationship with a permitted payment stablecoin issuer through issuance, redemption, custody, reserve management, or other authorized services.
By contrast, simply holding or transferring a payment stablecoin would generally not create an account relationship with the issuer. The agencies said secondary market activity, including transfers between users and transactions carried out through intermediaries, usually would not trigger customer identification obligations for the issuer. Their reasoning is practical: issuers often do not have direct relationships with users involved in those transactions.
State-regulated issuers are also covered
The proposal came days after a bipartisan group of U.S. senators asked the Treasury Department to preserve a role for state regulators under the GENIUS Act. In a June 16 letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, lawmakers led by Senator Cynthia Lummis called for clearer guidance on how states can secure certification for their own stablecoin regulatory systems.
The GENIUS Act allows issuers with no more than $10 billion in outstanding stablecoins to operate under certified state regulatory regimes. The customer identification proposal says its requirements would apply not only to federally supervised issuers, but also to stablecoin issuers operating under eligible state frameworks created under the law.
The NCUA also pointed to earlier stablecoin rulemakings. It said the agency issued a proposal last month covering operational and risk management standards for licensed payment stablecoin issuers, and released another proposal in February 2026 dealing with applications from issuers under its jurisdiction.