Payments & E-Money in United States

Key dates

2024-04-01

Bank of America self-identified the inaccurate wire-transmittor information issue, according to the OCC enforcement order; the date is included as an approximate month-level historical reference represented by the first day of the month.

2024-10-01

Bank of America stopped the inaccurate transmittor-information practice in 2024; the OCC order does not provide an exact day, so this is an approximate month-level historical reference represented by the first day of the month.

2026-10-08

The OCC announced the American Express National Bank cease-and-desist order and $350 million civil money penalty.

2026-10-13

The OCC announced the Bank of America $750 million civil money penalty, described as the largest penalty in OCC history, in coordination with Treasury and FinCEN actions.

2026-10-22

The OCC published the October 2026 consolidated enforcement-actions release.

Suggested considerations

• Firms should consider reassessing whether their BSA/AML risk assessments cover the risks of all material products and services, rather than concentrating on narrower deposit activity while underweighting credit-card, charge-card, correspondent, or payment activity.
• Compliance teams may wish to test end-to-end transaction-monitoring workflows for alert generation, escalation, investigation, disposition, and SAR filing, including backlog governance, aging thresholds, management information, and evidence that suspected trade-based money laundering is escalated promptly.
• Firms should consider validating that customer identification, customer due diligence, beneficial-ownership information, and ongoing-risk-rating processes are complete, accurate, risk-based, and aligned to the institution's actual customer and product populations.
• Banks may wish to perform a targeted review of outgoing wire data to confirm that originator or transmittor names and other required fields are accurate, consistently populated, retained, and not overwritten by deficient interfaces or manual processes.
• Boards and senior management should consider documenting sufficient staffing, subject-matter expertise, training, independent testing, audit coverage, and issue-remediation ownership for BSA/AML programs.
• Institutions operating under prior supervisory findings should consider independent validation that corrective actions are complete, effective, sustainable, and supported by evidence, rather than merely implemented procedurally.
• Compliance teams should consider reviewing whether third-party, correspondent, and payment-processing arrangements create data-quality or monitoring dependencies that could delay SAR filing or impair law-enforcement traceability.

What changed

This publication announces enforcement outcomes rather than a new rule or generally applicable deadline. American Express National Bank is subject to a cease-and-desist order and a $350 million penalty for an inadequately designed and monitored BSA/AML program, inadequate resources and expertise, internal-control weaknesses, weak independent testing and training, systemic failures involving approximately $13 billion of suspected trade-based money-laundering activity, and customer identification and customer due diligence deficiencies.

Key dates

2026-10-21

OCC publishes Bulletin 2026-52, revised PS-01 and PS-02 forms for public comment, and issues its GENIUS Act implementing final rule.

2027-01-18

The OCC final rule implementing the GENIUS Act and the GENIUS Act take effect, according to the OCC’s related final-rule materials.

2027-01-25 Deadline

First weekly PS-01 report date, subject to OMB approval of the information collection.

2027-03-31 Deadline

First quarterly PS-02 report date, subject to OMB approval of the information collection.

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams at affected issuers should review the revised PS-01 and PS-02 workbooks and instructions and identify every required data element, reporting frequency, aggregation rule, and responsible control owner.
• Firms should consider submitting comments within 30 days after publication of the information-collection notice in the Federal Register, with particular attention to data availability, calculation methodology, confidentiality, reporting burden, and transition timing.
• Issuers should map daily issuance, redemption, reserve, ownership-concentration, and trading data to PS-01 and test whether systems can produce a complete weekly submission for the January 25, 2027 report date, subject to OMB approval.
• Issuers should assess whether finance and regulatory-reporting systems can produce PS-02 information on income, assets, liabilities, off-balance-sheet activities, and capital for the March 31, 2027 report date.
• Firms should establish governance for data certification, reconciliation to general-ledger and reserve records, exception management, senior review, and retention of supporting documentation for OCC examination.
• Issuers should assess the interaction between the reporting forms and the final rule’s reserve, redemption, risk-management, audit, capital, custody, and supervisory requirements, rather than treating the forms as an isolated reporting exercise.
• Foreign issuers should confirm their OCC registration status, reporting perimeter, U.S. activities, and allocation of information-production responsibilities between U.S. operations, parent entities, and service providers.

What changed

The OCC is reopening public comment on revised weekly Form PS-01 and quarterly Form PS-02 and their instructions. PS-01 requires daily data compiled and submitted weekly for each payment stablecoin, covering issuance, reserves, ownership concentration, and trading activity. PS-02 requires quarterly reporting on the issuer’s condition and income, including balance-sheet assets and liabilities, off-balance-sheet activities, income, and capital.

Key dates

2026-10-21

The OCC issued Bulletin 2026-51 and stated that applications and waiver requests will be accepted only after OMB approves the related information collection.

2027-01-18 Deadline

The GENIUS Act and OCC final rule become effective; the Prior Approval Requirement generally applies, and unauthorized issuance of a payment stablecoin in the United States may carry criminal penalties.

2028-01-18 Deadline

The maximum statutory period for a waiver beginning on January 18, 2027 expires, subject to the terms and shorter duration of any individual waiver.

Suggested considerations

• Firms should determine whether they are currently issuing a payment stablecoin in the United States and whether they fall within the OCC application pathway or another primary federal payment stablecoin regulator's pathway.
• Existing issuers should consider preparing and submitting a substantially complete OCC application as soon as the agency announces that applications are accepted, rather than relying on the waiver as a substitute for authorization.
• Applicants should map their submission against every prescribed application question and documentation requirement, including the business plan, management, reserve assets, issuance and redemption processes, risk management, capital and liquidity, shared services, BSA/AML, OFAC, third-party risk, enterprise risk, compliance risk, and audit functions.
• Compliance teams may wish to prepare a separate written waiver request addressing the Prior Approval Requirement, identifying any additional GENIUS Act or final-rule requirements that cannot be met by January 18, 2027, and explaining the requested duration and operational rationale.
• Issuers should monitor the OCC's GENIUS Act landing page and press releases for OMB approval and the opening of the application and waiver process, because the bulletin does not provide a fixed application-opening date.
• Firms should maintain evidence supporting the completeness and accuracy of their applications and establish a process to respond promptly to OCC requests for missing information within the 30-day review cycles.
• Prospective issuers that are not already operating in the United States should consider planning for operations to begin only after OCC approval, consistent with the agency's stated position on waiver eligibility.
• Regulatory change teams should continue tracking separate FinCEN, OFAC, OCC, and other agency rulemakings concerning AML, CFT, sanctions, and customer-identification requirements rather than assuming that an OCC application or Prior Approval Requirement waiver resolves those obligations.

What changed

Beginning January 18, 2027, a person generally must be approved as a permitted payment stablecoin issuer before issuing a payment stablecoin in the United States; unauthorized issuance may carry criminal penalties. Under GENIUS Act section 5(f) and 12 CFR 15.30(g), an issuer with a substantially complete OCC application pending on January 18, 2027 may request a written waiver of the Prior Approval Requirement and other statutory or final-rule requirements that it cannot satisfy by the effective date.

Key dates

2025-07-18

The GENIUS Act was enacted.

2026-10-21

The OCC published the final rule and related application, waiver and reporting materials.

2027-01-18 Deadline

The GENIUS Act and OCC final rule take effect; U.S. payment stablecoin issuance generally requires permitted payment stablecoin issuer status, and a substantially complete application must be pending by this date to support eligibility for an OCC waiver request.

2027-01-25

Proposed first weekly OCC reporting date, subject to OMB approval of the information collection.

2027-03-31

Proposed first quarterly OCC reporting date, subject to OMB approval of the information collection.

Suggested considerations

• Firms seeking permitted payment stablecoin status should consider mapping their licensing strategy, corporate structure and applicable OCC pathway under 12 CFR part 15 before 2027-01-18.
• Existing U.S. issuers that need transitional relief should consider submitting a substantially complete OCC application on or before 2027-01-18 and preparing a written waiver request promptly after the OCC begins accepting applications and waiver requests.
• Applicants should consider documenting business plans, management, reserve assets, issuance and redemption processes, capital and liquidity, risk management, third-party and shared-services arrangements, audit functions and compliance governance in the application package.
• Issuers should consider validating reserve composition, one-to-one backing, liquidity, concentration, counterparty exposure, stress-testing and redemption controls against the final rule rather than relying on the proposal's reserve assumptions.
• Issuers should consider testing operational capacity to process redemptions within two business days and to notify the OCC within 24 hours when the 10% redemption-demand trigger is reached.
• Issuers and distribution partners should consider reviewing stablecoin rewards, yield, rebate and promotional arrangements on a transaction-by-transaction basis because pre-existing programs are not automatically grandfathered and the final rule provides no general safe harbor.
• Covered firms should consider establishing governance for audits, reporting, examination responses, custody controls, foreign-issuer oversight and potential approval revocation or rescission.
• Compliance teams should track the separate Treasury-coordinated BSA, AML and OFAC rulemaking and avoid treating this final rule as the complete GENIUS Act compliance framework.

What changed

The final rule applies to national banks and their subsidiaries, federal savings associations and their subsidiaries, federal branches and their subsidiaries, federal qualified payment stablecoin issuers, foreign payment stablecoin issuers, and state qualified payment stablecoin issuers over which the OCC has regulatory or enforcement authority.

Key dates

2025-07-18

The GENIUS Act was enacted.

2026-10-21

The OCC published the final rule, application and waiver guidance, and revised proposed reporting forms.

2027-01-18 Deadline

The GENIUS Act and OCC final rule take effect; U.S. payment-stablecoin issuance generally requires permitted payment stablecoin issuer approval, and existing issuers seeking a waiver generally must have a pending substantially complete OCC application by this date.

2027-01-25 Deadline

Proposed effective report date for the weekly reporting form, subject to Office of Management and Budget approval.

2027-03-31 Deadline

Proposed effective report date for the quarterly reporting form, subject to Office of Management and Budget approval.

Suggested considerations

• Firms considering U.S. payment-stablecoin issuance should assess whether they qualify as a permitted payment stablecoin issuer, a federal qualified issuer, a state-qualified issuer subject to OCC authority, or a foreign issuer within the rule's scope.
• Existing U.S. issuers should consider preparing a substantially complete OCC application and evaluating whether a waiver request is needed by January 18, 2027; the OCC may grant waivers for up to 12 months beginning on that date, generally where an eligible application is pending.
• Applicants should prepare documentation covering the business plan, management, reserve assets, issuance and redemption processes, risk management, capital and liquidity, shared services, BSA/AML/OFAC controls, third-party risk, enterprise risk, compliance risk, and audit functions.
• Issuers should map reserve assets to the final rule's 1:1 backing, daily-liquidity, diversification, and counterparty-concentration requirements and establish controls capable of supporting generally timely redemption within two business days.
• Compliance and product teams should inventory interest, yield, cashback, loyalty, referral, and exchange rewards arrangements involving payment stablecoins and document the business purpose and consideration supporting each payment, because the OCC has not provided a categorical safe harbor and will apply the statutory prohibition case by case.
• Issuers should design weekly reserve and payment-stablecoin activity reporting and quarterly reports of condition and income, subject to confirming the final OMB-approved forms and effective reporting dates.
• Banks and other OCC-supervised custodians should review custody arrangements, segregation and control frameworks, third-party dependencies, and contractual allocation of responsibility for stablecoin and reserve-asset custody.
• Firms should track the separate Treasury, FinCEN, OFAC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC implementation work because the OCC final rule does not complete BSA, AML, or sanctions requirements and is only one component of the GENIUS Act framework.

What changed

New 12 CFR part 15 establishes requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers, foreign payment stablecoin issuers subject to OCC authority, certain state-qualified issuers, and specified custody activities conducted by OCC-supervised entities. The framework covers issuer activities, reserve assets, redemption, risk management, audits, reports, examinations, supervision, custody, applications and registrations, state-to-federal transitions, foreign-issuer supervision, approval revocation or rescission, and capital and operational backstops.

Key dates

2026-10-14

The CFPB announced the debanking investigation and enforcement initiative; the OCC released its report on the nine largest national banks on the same date.

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams may wish to inventory account closures, service restrictions, onboarding denials, credit denials, and material service-friction decisions since 2020, with particular attention to political or religious affiliations and lawful activities in firearms, oil and gas, coal, tobacco, digital assets, and other sectors identified by the OCC.
• Firms should consider testing whether customer-facing reasons for adverse decisions accurately and specifically reflect the documented internal rationale, including compliance with ECOA and Regulation B adverse-action notice requirements and applicable FCRA adverse-action notice requirements.
• Institutions may wish to review reputation-risk policies, sector restrictions, escalation criteria, committee materials, employee guidance, and risk taxonomies to confirm that decisions are based on objective, individualized, documented, and legally supportable risk considerations rather than generalized political, social, or reputational preferences.
• Compliance teams should consider preserving relevant complaints, account-review records, escalation communications, decision logs, adverse-action notices, and policy versions in anticipation of CFPB information requests or supervisory examination.
• Banks and covered nonbanks may wish to compare complaint-portal submissions and internal complaint data against account-closure and service-denial populations to identify unexplained patterns, inconsistent reasons, or failures to provide required notices.
• Firms should consider assessing whether deposit-account and payment-service decisions create potential UDAAP exposure even where ECOA or FCRA does not directly apply, while continuing to apply legitimate safety, soundness, sanctions, fraud, AML, credit, and operational-risk controls.
• Senior compliance and legal personnel may wish to establish governance for politically sensitive or sector-based account decisions so that risk-based controls are not removed indiscriminately and exceptions are documented, consistently applied, and subject to appropriate review.

What changed

The CFPB did not issue a new regulation or impose a new compliance deadline. It announced a supervisory and enforcement initiative implementing Executive Order 14331 and responding to the OCC's report covering conduct identified between 2020 and September 2025. The CFPB stated that it will investigate potential violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, including Regulation B adverse-action requirements, the Fair Credit Reporting Act adverse-action requirements, and the prohibition on unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices under the Consumer Financial Protection Act.

Key dates

2026-10-08

Federal Reserve and OCC announced coordinated enforcement actions; the OCC imposed a $350 million civil money penalty on American Express National Bank and issued a cease-and-desist order. The Federal Reserve action applied to American Express Company and American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

2027-01-06 Deadline

Approximate deadline for American Express National Bank to submit the OCC-required written Action Plan within 90 days of the October 8, 2026 order, subject to the order's day-counting conventions.

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams may wish to reassess whether the institution's BSA/AML risk assessment adequately covers its largest and most economically significant products, customer segments, transaction channels, and trade-related activity.
• Firms should consider testing whether customer identification, customer due diligence, beneficial-ownership information, and transaction-monitoring scenarios are appropriately calibrated to credit-card, charge-card, merchant, cross-border, and trade-based money-laundering risks.
• Management may wish to inventory staffing, subject-matter expertise, escalation capacity, data quality, model and rules governance, internal controls, independent testing, and BSA/AML training for employees and directors against the deficiencies identified in the coordinated orders.
• Compliance teams may wish to conduct a lookback of previously generated alerts and transactions to assess whether suspicious activity was timely investigated, escalated, documented, and reported through SARs, including whether systemic monitoring gaps affected historical activity.
• Boards and senior management should consider obtaining documented evidence that enterprise AML oversight is operating effectively at subsidiaries and that parent-level governance does not rely solely on narrow subsidiary or product risk assessments.
• Affected American Express entities should track the 90-day Action Plan submission requirement and prepare supporting remediation evidence, governance reporting, milestone tracking, and supervisory communications.
• Other regulated firms should consider treating the action as a supervisory signal that risk assessments, transaction monitoring, and SAR controls must be aligned to actual business volume and risk rather than to the products that are easiest to administer.

What changed

This is an enforcement action rather than a generally applicable new rule, but it establishes concrete remediation expectations for a large, complex card issuer. The coordinated OCC order requires American Express National Bank to submit, within 90 days of the October 8, 2026 order, an acceptable written Action Plan addressing all BSA/AML deficiencies and incorporating the order's substantive requirements; the OCC must provide prior written supervisory non-objection.

Key dates

2026-10-08

The OCC announced the cease-and-desist order and $350 million civil money penalty against American Express National Bank; the Federal Reserve announced a coordinated action against American Express Company and American Express Travel Related Services Company.

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams may wish to reassess whether the BSA/AML risk assessment accurately reflects the institution's largest and most complex products, customer segments, payment flows, geographies, channels, and transaction types, rather than relying primarily on deposit-account risk.
• Firms should consider testing whether customer identification, customer due diligence, beneficial-ownership information, and account-risk-rating processes provide sufficiently complete and reliable data for transaction monitoring and suspicious-activity reporting.
• Banks may wish to conduct a targeted lookback for trade-based money-laundering indicators in card, merchant, payment, cross-border, and related repayment activity, including activity involving insiders or connected accounts, and document escalation and reporting decisions.
• Compliance teams should consider validating that monitoring scenarios, alert thresholds, investigative workflows, case-management controls, quality assurance, and SAR filing processes can identify and report suspicious activity within applicable regulatory timeframes.
• Boards and senior management may wish to review whether BSA/AML staffing levels, expertise, reporting lines, technology, data governance, and independent-testing coverage are proportionate to the institution's size, complexity, and risk profile.
• Firms should consider strengthening role-based BSA/AML training for employees, directors, and senior management, with evidence of completion, competency, and periodic refreshers.
• Internal audit or another suitably independent function may wish to perform end-to-end testing of risk assessment, customer due diligence, monitoring, investigation, SAR decisioning, and governance controls, with tracked remediation and board-level reporting.
• U.S. banking organizations may wish to compare their programs against the OCC's findings and the market commentary emphasizing that the principal lesson is product-risk misalignment and the need for enterprise-wide controls, not merely remediation of isolated monitoring alerts.

What changed

This is an enforcement action and supervisory precedent, not a new generally applicable rule. The OCC required American Express National Bank to remediate a BSA/AML program that was not reasonably designed to assure and monitor compliance with the BSA and its implementing regulations. The findings specifically reinforce expectations that risk assessments cover the institution's actual product mix, including credit and charge cards; customer identification and customer due-diligence procedures support effective monitoring; transaction-monitoring and suspicious-activity reporting processes...

Key dates

2020-12-23

FinCEN published the NPRM at 85 FR 83840 proposing additional reporting, recordkeeping, and identity-verification requirements for certain transactions involving unhosted or otherwise covered wallets.

2026-10-06

FinCEN withdrew the NPRM and stated that it would take no further action on that rulemaking.

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams may wish to remove implementation workstreams, testing scenarios, and policy language that were created solely for the withdrawn NPRM's proposed $3,000 recordkeeping or $10,000 reporting thresholds.
• Firms should consider documenting that the NPRM was never effective and that its withdrawal does not eliminate existing obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act or applicable implementing regulations in 31 CFR parts 1010, 1020, and 1022.
• Banks and MSBs may wish to reassess whether current controls for transfers involving unhosted wallets remain risk-based and supported by documented AML risk assessments, rather than treating the withdrawn proposal's thresholds as mandatory rules.
• Crypto businesses should continue reviewing applicable customer-identification, customer-due-diligence, suspicious-activity-reporting, recordkeeping, transaction-monitoring, and OFAC sanctions requirements independently of this withdrawal.
• Regulatory-monitoring teams may wish to track whether FinCEN or Treasury develops a replacement digital-asset framework, particularly in light of the stated policy objective that digital-asset regulation be fit for purpose.

What changed

FinCEN withdrew the NPRM published at 85 FR 83840 and stated that it will take no further action on that rulemaking. The withdrawn proposal would have required banks and money services businesses to file reports when a transaction involving an unhosted or otherwise covered wallet exceeded $10,000, or multiple such transactions exceeded $10,000 in 24 hours. It also would have required records, counterparty information, and customer identity verification for covered transactions exceeding $3,000.

Key dates

2023-10-23

FinCEN published the proposed section 311 finding and special measure concerning international CVC mixing at 88 FR 72701.

2026-10-06

FinCEN's withdrawal of the finding and proposed rulemaking became effective upon Federal Register publication at 91 FR 63513.

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams should discontinue implementation work that was undertaken solely for the withdrawn section 311 CVC-mixing proposal, including plans for the proposal-specific data fields, reporting workflows, and enhanced customer records.
• Firms should not interpret the withdrawal as authorization to process illicit mixer activity without controls; they should continue applying existing risk-based AML, sanctions, transaction-monitoring, escalation, and suspicious activity reporting procedures.
• Crypto exchanges and other covered institutions should review whether current transaction-monitoring scenarios appropriately identify mixer exposure and other indicators of money laundering or terrorist financing under existing requirements, without treating all privacy-preserving activity as inherently suspicious.
• Firms may wish to document the withdrawal in their regulatory inventory, rulemaking-impact assessments, and model or procedure change logs, while preserving controls that address independently applicable BSA or sanctions requirements.
• Compliance teams should monitor future FinCEN notices, section 311 actions, enforcement activity, and interpretive guidance because FinCEN expressly reserved the possibility of future measures concerning mixers.
• Legal and compliance functions should reassess any customer, product, or transaction restrictions adopted specifically in anticipation of the proposed rule and determine whether they remain justified by the firm's risk assessment, other legal requirements, or contractual obligations.

What changed

FinCEN withdrew the proposed rule published at 88 FR 72701 and the underlying section 311 finding concerning international CVC mixing. The proposed special measure one regime would have required covered financial institutions to report specified information for transactions they knew, suspected, or had reason to suspect involved international CVC mixing, including CVC type and amount, mixer and wallet information, transaction hashes, transaction dates, IP addresses, customer-identifying information, and a narrative description.

Key dates

2026-10-05

The CFTC Chairman announced the proposed Regulation CTX and Regulation CAM framework, and independent industry reporting identified the accompanying action as an advance notice of proposed rulemaking.

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams may wish to monitor the Federal Register for publication of the CTX/CAM ANPRM and calculate the 60-day comment period from the actual publication date rather than from the Chairman’s October 5 statement.
• Affected exchanges should map each product and customer flow against margin, leverage, financing, custody, settlement, and internal-ledger features to determine whether the activity could fall within the proposed CTX concept.
• State-licensed platforms may wish to assess the strategic and operational consequences of pursuing a CFTC registration pathway instead of relying solely on state money-transmitter licenses.
• Firms may wish to review governance, conflicts-of-interest controls, market surveillance, anti-manipulation controls, customer-asset segregation, operational resilience, disclosure, and recordkeeping capabilities against existing CFTC designated contract market and customer-protection expectations.
• Exchanges and service providers may wish to prepare comments addressing the scope of Section 2(c)(2)(D), the treatment of fully paid transactions, the boundary between spot trading and financed transactions, and the interaction between CAM registration and state licensing.
• Legal and compliance functions may wish to inventory crypto assets and classify them consistently with the referenced joint CFTC-SEC interpretation, while preserving separate analysis for assets that may constitute securities or fall outside the proposed framework.
• U.S.-facing offshore platforms should reassess territorial exposure and customer-access controls because the proposal may create a clearer federal compliance pathway without eliminating potential CFTC jurisdiction over unregistered or fraudulent activity.

What changed

The CFTC is proposing to use its existing Commodity Exchange Act authority, including Section 2(c)(2)(D), to develop a purpose-built framework for crypto asset transactions and markets. Regulation CTX would address retail crypto transactions involving margin, leverage, or financing. Regulation CAM would establish a tailored category of CFTC-registered crypto asset market, apparently as a specialized form of designated contract market, for exchanges offering those transactions.

Key dates

2026-08-11

Effective date of the Geographic Targeting Order

2027-02-06 Deadline

Order period ends after 180 days unless renewed

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams may wish to identify all branches, subsidiaries, and offices in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties and map which payment flows meet the Order’s definition of a Covered Transaction.
• Firms may wish to update transaction-monitoring and customer due diligence workflows to capture the additional data elements required for bank or money transmitter reports, including beneficiary or recipient contact details and government-benefits-related funding questions.
• Operational teams may wish to confirm readiness to submit reports through the FI Portal and to generate the required CSV files using the Minnesota Fraud GTO template and naming convention.
• Records-management teams may wish to set a retention control ensuring all reports and related compliance records are preserved for five years from the last day the Order is effective.
• Banks and money transmitters may wish to review whether any existing BSA or sanctions screening processes can be leveraged to identify covered international transfers meeting the $3,000 threshold.
• Compliance teams may wish to test month-end reporting processes so filings occur by the end of the month following the month in which each Covered Transaction took place.

What changed

The Order creates a temporary, geographically targeted recordkeeping and reporting regime under 31 CFR Part 1010 for covered institutions in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties. A “Covered Business” is any bank under 31 CFR 1010.100(d) or money transmitter under 31 CFR 1010.100(ff)(5) with a branch, subsidiary, or office in the covered area.

Key dates

2026-06-24

Venezuela experienced a pair of strong earthquakes off the northern coast west of Caracas, triggering the humanitarian crisis referenced by the agencies.

2026-07-27

FinCEN issued a substantively similar statement of enforcement policy regarding Venezuela-related financial services.

2026-07-31

The OCC, Federal Reserve, FDIC, and NCUA issued the joint enforcement policy.

2026-07-31

Start of the period during which authorized financial services to persons or entities in Venezuela are covered by the enforcement commitment.

2027-01-29 Deadline

End of the covered period for the joint enforcement commitment.

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams may wish to confirm whether current Venezuela-related activity falls within the scope of authorized financial services covered by the joint statement.
• Institutions may wish to verify that their BSA compliance program remains current and that ongoing controls reflect reasonable efforts to comply during the relief period.
• Firms may wish to check whether they have had any final FinCEN or OCC enforcement action involving BSA violations in the prior 24 months before relying on the policy.
• Sanctions teams may wish to confirm continued compliance with all applicable OFAC-administered sanctions regulations and authorizations.
• Institutions with Venezuela exposure may wish to document how they will evidence reliance on the policy and monitor the January 29, 2027 end date.

What changed

The agencies stated that eligible U.S. financial institutions that choose to provide authorized financial services to persons or entities in Venezuela will not be subject to supervisory action, including a citation for a violation of law, or enforcement action related to a Bank Secrecy Act requirement, for those services. The commitment is limited to authorized financial services provided from 2026-07-31 through 2027-01-29 and applies only to statutes or regulations specifically addressed in the joint statement.

Key dates

2026-06-25

FinCEN published the underlying NPRM to amend the Huione Group definition

2026-06-25

Electronic comment filing became unavailable due to a portal issue

2026-06-30

Portal issue period ended after six days of blocked electronic filing

2026-07-22

FinCEN dated the comment-period extension notice

2026-07-24

Federal Register publication of the extension notice at 91 FR 46761

2026-08-02 Deadline

Extended deadline for written comments on the NPRM

Suggested considerations

• Consider whether to submit comments on the NPRM by the extended deadline of 2026-08-02.
• Review customer, correspondent, and payment relationships for any exposure to Huione Group, H-Pay Service PLC, or entities that may be treated as successor entities if the proposal is finalized.
• Assess whether internal screening, escalation, and due diligence procedures would need updates if FinCEN finalizes the expanded definition.
• Monitor FinCEN’s final action on the NPRM and any resulting special-measures scope changes under 31 CFR 1010.

What changed

This publication does not impose a new final obligation; it extends the public comment deadline for an existing NPRM. The underlying proposal would amend FinCEN’s definition of Huione Group, a financial institution operating outside the United States of primary money laundering concern, to include H-Pay Service PLC and to add a defined term for “successor entity.” The extension was granted because a technological issue with the comment portal prevented electronic filing from June 25 through June 30, 2026.

Key dates

2026-06-22

OCC bulletin announcing the notice of proposed rulemaking was issued

2026-07-22 Deadline

Planned deadline for comments, if the Federal Register publication date aligns with the bulletin date and the OCC’s 30-day comment period is measured from publication

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams may wish to assess whether the entity falls within the OCC-supervised PPSI category or within the state-qualified issuer population covered by OCC authority under the GENIUS Act.
• Firms may wish to review existing AML/CFT and sanctions controls against the BSA, FinCEN, and OFAC requirements referenced in the proposal, including reporting, monitoring, and risk assessment procedures.
• Compliance teams may wish to map governance, escalation, and record-sharing workflows to the proposed OCC-FinCEN consultation framework, particularly for potential significant supervisory or enforcement matters.
• Firms may wish to consider whether their current policies, procedures, and internal controls are sufficiently tailored to stablecoin-specific risks and whether additional board or senior management oversight would be needed.
• Compliance teams may wish to evaluate whether they should submit comments during the 30-day Federal Register comment period if aspects of the proposed framework could affect operating models or compliance design.

What changed

The proposed rule would require OCC-supervised PPSIs to comply with the BSA, sections 4(a)(5) and 4(a)(6)(B) of the GENIUS Act, and applicable FinCEN and OFAC regulations, including AML/CFT program, sanctions program, and reporting requirements. It would also create a supervision and enforcement framework for PPSI AML/CFT programs, so the OCC can take AML/CFT supervisory and enforcement action against covered issuers. The rule would establish a formal consultation process between the OCC and FinCEN when the OCC intends to initiate an AML/CFT enforcement action or a significant AML/CFT...

Key dates

March 31, 2026

Speech delivery; Outlines priorities and previews new cooperation policy advisory

Soon after March 31, 2026

New cooperation policy advisory issuance; Expected imminently; firms should monitor CFTC site for formal release

Suggested considerations

• Enhance surveillance: Implement robust monitoring for insider trading in prediction markets, manipulation in energy, disruptive trading, retail fraud signals, and AML/KYC red flags; prioritize misappropriated nonpublic info detection.
• Update policies: Revise insider trading protocols to align with CEA anti-fraud provisions; train staff on prediction market risks (debunking "no insider laws apply" myth).
• Strengthen cooperation readiness: Develop self-reporting/escalation processes, remediation plans, and documentation for declination credit under forthcoming policy; review prior CFTC advisories (e.g., 2025 mitigation matrix).
• Conduct gap analysis: Audit AML/KYC programs for willful violations; assess exposure in priority markets (energy, prediction/crypto, retail).
• Monitor updates: Subscribe to CFTC Press Room for cooperation advisory and related actions (e.g., Feb 25, 2026 Prediction Markets Advisory post-enforcement cases: https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9185-26).

What changed

• - End of "regulation by enforcement": CFTC Enforcement will focus solely on policing fraud, abuse, and manipulation under existing CEA anti-fraud provisions, avoiding policy-setting via enforcement...
• Five explicit enforcement priorities: 1. Insider trading, with strong emphasis on prediction markets (e.g., misappropriation of nonpublic information violates CEA). 2.
• New cooperation policy advisory (forthcoming soon): Includes "significant changes" to declination policy, building on prior frameworks like mitigation-credit matrices and safe harbors for...

Key dates

March 17, 2026

SEC-CFTC Joint Interpretation Effective; The foundational joint interpretation establishing crypto asset taxonomy and digital commodity classification became effective upon Federal Register publication

March 20, 2026

FAQs Published; CFTC Market Participants Division and Division of Clearing and Risk issue clarifying FAQs effective immediately

January 18, 2027 (Estimated)

GENIUS Act Stablecoin Exclusion; Final implementing rules for payment stablecoins issued by permitted issuers; interim staff position applies now

Within 30–60 Days Deadline

Disclosure & Program Updates; Firms must revise Form ADV, disclosure documents, offering materials, and custodial arrangements to reflect the new regulatory framework

Immediate Deadline

Compliance Review Required; Asset classification audits, staking arrangement reviews, and investment contract assessments must begin now; enforcement posture is live

Suggested considerations

• *Immediate (0–30 days):
• *Asset Classification Audit: Map every crypto asset in your portfolios, products, or platforms against the five-category framework (digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins, digital securities) established in the March 17 joint interpretation.
• *Investment Contract Review: Identify any assets subject to active issuer promises of essential managerial effort—those remain securities regardless of category and cannot be treated as digital commodities.
• *FAQ Implementation Review: Obtain and review the full CFTC FAQs (available at https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9200-26) to identify specific operational questions relevant to your entity type.
• *Notification Protocol Establishment: If relying on the no-action relief for tokenized collateral, establish procedures to notify the CFTC of significant operational, system, or cybersecurity issues affecting digital asset collateral use (required for first three months of relief).

What changed

• The CFTC FAQs address implementation questions arising from two prior staff positions:
• Tokenized Collateral Guidance (CFTC Staff Letter 25-39): Established the framework allowing futures commission merchants (FCMs) and designated contract markets (DCMs) to accept digital assets as...
• No-Action Position (CFTC Staff Letter 26-05): Provided temporary relief permitting FCMs to accept payment stablecoins, Bitcoin, and Ether as customer margin collateral, subject to specific...
• How registered entities should operationalize tokenized collateral acceptance
• Compliance with notification and operational risk management requirements

Key dates

2025-01-30

The CFPB issued the original Wise consent order, requiring approximately $450,000 in consumer redress and a $2.025 million civil money penalty.

2025-04-17

The CFPB published the rescission of Consumer Financial Protection Circular 2024-02 at 89 FR 27357; the rescission was later identified as relevant to the revised Wise penalty.

2025-05-15

The CFPB and Wise entered the Amended Consent Order, which superseded the January order and reduced the civil money penalty to $44,955.

2025-05-25 Deadline

Wise was required to reserve or deposit $449,550.99 in a segregated account within 10 days of the Amended Consent Order’s effective date, assuming the order became effective on May 15, 2025.

2025-07-14 Deadline

Wise was required to create and implement its comprehensive compliance plan within 60 days of the Amended Consent Order’s effective date, assuming an effective date of May 15, 2025.

Suggested considerations

• Firms should consider mapping each remittance-transfer customer journey to the applicable Regulation E disclosure, receipt, cancellation, refund, error-notice and error-resolution requirements, including transfers funded from prepaid accounts or foreign bank accounts.
• Compliance teams may wish to test whether advertisements and product interfaces accurately state ATM fees, transfer fees, exchange rates, recipient amounts and other costs for the relevant U.S. customer population, rather than relying on global or non-U.S. customer data.
• Firms should consider validating that exchange rates are disclosed using the required Exchange Rate terminology, rounded consistently to no fewer than two and no more than four decimal places, and accompanied by the required date-of-availability information.
• Compliance teams may wish to review controls for delayed or unavailable transfers to ensure remittance fees are refunded within the applicable Regulation E timeframe and that notices of error are investigated, resolved and documented appropriately.
• Firms should consider reviewing change-in-terms notices, foreign-language receipts, combined disclosures, record-retention controls and written policies and procedures for prepaid accounts and remittance transfers.
• Boards and senior management of covered payment providers may wish to receive documented reporting on material Regulation E deficiencies, consumer-redress calculations, remediation progress and testing results.
• Firms should distinguish the rescinded Circular 2024-02 from the underlying binding requirements of the EFTA, Regulation E, the Prepaid Rule and the CFPA, and should avoid treating the penalty reduction as a relaxation of disclosure or refund obligations.

What changed

The May 15, 2025 Amended Consent Order supersedes the January order. Wise must reserve or deposit $449,550.99 in a segregated account for affected-consumer redress, subject to the order’s treatment of qualifying prior payments, and must pay a $44,955 civil money penalty under 12 U.S.C. § 5565(c)(4), rather than the prior $2.025 million penalty. Wise must create and implement a comprehensive compliance plan within 60 days of the order’s effective date, covering its remittance-transfer and prepaid-account services, applicable federal consumer financial law, and the order’s requirements.

Key dates

2024-05-31

The CFPB published Use of Digital User Accounts to Access Buy Now, Pay Later Loans at 89 Fed. Reg. 47,068, treating covered BNPL lenders as card issuers under Regulation Z.

2025-05-06

The CFPB announced that it would not prioritize enforcement actions based on the BNPL interpretive rule and was contemplating rescission.

2025-05-12

The CFPB subsequently withdrew the 2024 BNPL interpretive rule as part of its withdrawal of guidance documents.

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams may wish to document the distinction between the CFPB's enforcement-priority statement and a formal repeal, noting that the announcement itself did not provide a safe harbor from the Truth in Lending Act, Regulation Z, UDAAP, Fair Credit Reporting Act, or applicable state law.
• BNPL providers should consider preserving existing Regulation Z implementation records, including disclosures, account statements, dispute and error-resolution procedures, refund processes, complaint files, and change-management documentation, because the CFPB's announcement did not authorize retrospective noncompliance and future policy could change.
• Firms may wish to verify the current status of the 2024 interpretive rule and monitor CFPB Federal Register notices, supervisory publications, litigation developments, and any replacement rule or guidance.
• Product and legal teams should consider reassessing whether each BNPL product is subject to Regulation Z based on its structure and applicable statutory provisions, rather than relying solely on the withdrawn interpretive rule.
• Compliance teams may wish to continue testing disclosures, payment schedules, fees, refund handling, billing-error response, complaint management, and marketing for compliance with remaining federal and state requirements.
• Multi-state providers should consider separately reviewing state licensing, rate, fee, disclosure, dispute-resolution, privacy, and unfair-practices requirements; independent commentary specifically identified New York legislation imposing BNPL licensing and supervision requirements, a 16 percent interest cap, fee restrictions, and additional consumer safeguards.
• Firms may wish to maintain contingency plans that allow rapid restoration or modification of credit-card-style Regulation Z controls if federal enforcement priorities or the legal status of BNPL products changes.

What changed

The CFPB stated that enforcement actions based on Use of Digital User Accounts to Access Buy Now, Pay Later Loans, 89 Fed. Reg. 47,068 (May 31, 2024), would not be a priority. The Bureau said it would redirect enforcement and supervision resources toward pressing consumer threats, particularly those involving servicemembers, veterans, taxpayers, and small businesses. The Bureau also said it was contemplating appropriate action to rescind the interpretive rule; subsequent CFPB materials identified the rule as withdrawn on 2025-05-12.