On October 21, 2026 the OCC adopted its final GENIUS Act rule for permitted payment stablecoin issuers and certain custody activities, effective January 18, 2027, and issued Bulletin 2026-51 on applications and waivers of up to 12 months. The final rule drops the proposed presumption against issuer yield arrangements with third parties and leaves them to case-by-case review. On September 24 the Federal Reserve Board requested comment on two GENIUS Act proposals for Board-supervised issuers, one on reserve assets, capital, risk management and safekeeping and one on the application process; they were published in the Federal Register on September 29, and comments close November 30. The FDIC has said it will finalize its rule by year-end. Comments on Treasury's issuance, offer and sale rule closed October 19. On the legislative side, the Senate rejected cloture on the CLARITY Act 49-50 on September 15, and a September 28 Senate report on USDT and Iran-linked wallets and an October 8 letter to Cantor Fitzgerald on its Tether relationship brought sanctions screening and reserve custody into congressional view.

The OCC granted Ripple National Trust Bank final approval on October 26, 2026, covering fiduciary digital asset custody and management of the reserves behind RLUSD. Ramp (October 19) and Galaxy Digital (October 29) have applied for national trust bank charters, Sezzle (October 22) for a national bank charter with deposit accounts, and Upgrade (October 12) to the FDIC and Nevada for an industrial loan company charter. The SEC proposed custody amendments for investment advisers and regulated funds on October 1, allowing eligible state trust companies to serve as custodians and letting blockchain records count toward compliance under conditions. On October 2 the Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC in federal district court over its 2026 national trust bank rule and an earlier interpretive letter, and FinCEN withdrew its 2020 unhosted wallet and 2023 mixing proposals on October 5.

OCC and FDIC finalize a joint rule prohibiting reputation risk from examinations, barring agencies from pressuring institutions to close accounts based on political views, protected speech, or lawful but disfavored business activities. Codification of the debanking reversal is now complete across the federal banking agencies.

On October 13, 2026 Treasury announced more than $1.21 billion in penalties against Bank of America over anti-money laundering and sanctions failures, crediting a $750 million OCC penalty, and the OCC fined American Express National Bank $350 million and issued a cease-and-desist order. On October 8, 34 state financial regulators settled with Coinme over bitcoin ATM kiosk compliance. On October 7 Vice Chair for Supervision Bowman announced that the Federal Reserve will organize bank supervision into five regions in place of its 12 Reserve Bank districts, and on September 28 Comptroller Gould announced workday limits on on-site examiner visits, with details not yet published. The OCC and FDIC rule defining "unsafe or unsound practice" and raising the bar for Matters Requiring Attention takes effect November 2. Comments on the interagency third-party risk management guidance and core service provider statement close November 16.

The CFTC issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on October 5, 2026 seeking comment on a framework for retail crypto asset transactions (Regulation CTX and Regulation CAM); comments are due 60 days after Federal Register publication. On September 17 the CFTC sent its Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets documents to OIRA for review. The Senate rejected cloture on the CLARITY Act 49-50 on September 15, leaving digital asset market structure to agency rulemaking. The SEC issued a five-year conditional innovation exemption for tokenized securities venues on September 17, and comments on Regulation Crypto Assets closed October 20. The Fed's "skinny" master account proposal remains active on payment-rail access.