While legislation is urgently needed to address risks posed by unregulated stablecoins, taking up last-minute legislation at this week’s House Financial Services Committee markup would be premature, ICBA told the panel.
Markup This Week: With lawmakers cobbling together legislative language to consider at the committee’s markup starting this Wednesday, ICBA encouraged the panel to ensure ICBA and other stakeholders have adequate time to review and comment on any stablecoin bill.
Pending Legislation: The draft bill being negotiated by committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Ranking Member Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) would restrict stablecoin issuance to banks and nonbank financial companies, barring certain commercial firms from issuing the digital assets.
ICBA Response: While ICBA has repeatedly called on policymakers to bring digital assets within the regulatory perimeter, it expressed concerns to the committee that the framework would allow nonbanks to issue stablecoins and that the Federal Reserve would lack adequate oversight authority.
Hearing Request: ICBA asked the committee to hold a hearing on the draft legislation before taking it up. “We encourage you to convene a hearing to more fully evaluate the significant consequences for the financial industry posed by the regulation of stablecoins,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey wrote.
More: With the debate ongoing, ICBA offers a summary of President Joe Biden’s executive order on digital assets as well as recent blog posts on the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin, its ongoing impact on financial markets, and how it affects community banks and the regulatory debate.
