OCC chief downplays concerns over stablecoin BankCran

The nation’s top banking regulator has dismissed concerns that stablecoins could spark a sudden deposit crisis, urging community banks to view digital assets as tools to compete with Wall Street giants rather than an existential threat.

Jonathan Gould, the Commissioner of the Comptroller of the Currency, told attendees at the American Bankers Association’s annual conference in Charlotte on Monday that any physical deposit flight “is not going to happen in secret” and “it’s not going to happen overnight.”

“If there is a significant flight from the banking system, I will take action,” Gould said, noting that “highly elected officials” and industry groups would also intervene.

His comments come as the banking industry has spent months urging Congress to close loopholes in the GENIUS Act, the nation’s first major bill. stable coin The bill was signed into law in July.

Standard Chartered recently predicted that stablecoins could siphon $1 trillion in deposits from emerging market banks within three years, while a Treasury report predicts that stablecoins could cause up to $6.6 trillion in U.S. deposit flight, depending on yields.

This field continues to grow, with users of the prediction market Myriad (launched by Myriad). decryptionDastan’s parent company has placed a 55% probability on all stablecoins’ market cap exceeding $360 billion by February 2026.

Federal banking agencies working on rulemaking for the GENIUS Act are “very conscious of the statutory deadlines given to them by Congress,” he added.

Gould said that payments stablecoin connectivity could allow regional banks to “break through some of the dominance that currently exists among the very large banks in the U.S. payments system,” and emphasized his role in ensuring that “there is a way to do this in a safe and sound way.”

“I don’t think that’s fair,” Gould said of creating an “unequal playing field” where only institutions with “sophisticated risk management” and strong balance sheets can participate in new technologies, vowing to open up “as many avenues for long-term survival and success as possible.”

Banking group warns of ‘loophole’

The American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute, and more than 50 state banking groups sent a letter to Congress in August demanding that “several loopholes” in the GENIUS law be closed.

The banking groups called on Congress to expand the interest ban to include “digital asset exchanges, brokers, dealers, and related entities,” and to remove the approval pathway for non-financial companies to issue stablecoins.

“Banks’ concerns about stablecoins are not just about regulation; they are about survival in a changing financial landscape,” said Prarabd Sharma, Head of DeFi Partnerships at STBL. decryption. “Even a 10% shift could increase funding costs by 20 to 30 basis points, reducing lending capacity and profitability.”

However, Prarabd noted that this change opens up opportunities as banks “can adopt the same underlying blockchain rails to tokenize deposits, streamline payments, and issue their own digital dollars with regulated interest.”

Bridge followed Coinbase, Circle, Paxos, and Ripple in filing for OCC National Trust Charter in October.

Anchorage Digital, which became the first digital asset company to receive an OCC license in 2021, operated under a consent order until August, when the OCC lifted the order citing “compliance” with safety and soundness requirements.