On 22 June 2026, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), together with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), published a joint notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register. The proposed rule would require permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs) to establish written, risk-based customer identification programs (CIPs) as a component of their anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism programs, implementing Section 14 of the Genius and Infrastructure Needed for Innovation in U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act).
The proposed rule at 31 C.F.R. Part 1021 would require a PPSI that holds a direct account relationship with a customer through issuing, redeeming, converting, repurchasing, burning, reissuing, or providing custodial services for stablecoins to collect each account holder's legal name, date of birth, current address, and taxpayer identification number before or within a reasonable time of account opening. CIP records and account-closure records must be retained for five years. PPSIs must also screen customers against government lists designated for CIP purposes and provide customers with written notice of the CIP programme.
PPSIs operating direct account relationships face new compliance obligations: written CIP policy documentation, identity verification technology, customer-screening database integration, and recordkeeping systems meeting the five-year retention requirement. Wallet providers, custodians, and issuers whose only customer interactions occur through secondary market trades or peer-to-peer smart contract transfers, where no account relationship exists with the PPSI, fall outside the proposed rule's scope.
The proposed rule implements the GENIUS Act's requirement that PPSIs comply with federal AML/CFT obligations and does not cover the full scope of Bank Secrecy Act requirements for PPSIs; additional rulemakings on other BSA requirements may follow. The comment period closes 21 August 2026. If finalized, PPSIs will have 12 months from the final rule's effective date to implement compliant CIP programmes.
Licentium advises stablecoin issuers, custodians, and digital asset service providers on U.S. regulatory compliance obligations. Clients assessing their status under the GENIUS Act are invited to contact us. Work we undertake includes AML/CFT programme design, CIP implementation planning, PPSI regulatory classification, FinCEN registration strategy, and multi-jurisdictional digital asset compliance structuring.
Source: Federal Register, Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuer Customer Identification Program, 22 June 2026