CFTC Clears Path for National Trust Banks to Issue Payment Stablecoins

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) clarified Friday (Feb. 6) that national trust banks may issue payment stablecoins.

The agency did so by reissuing CFTC Staff Letter 25-40, which was originally issued Dec. 8, 2025, it said in a Friday press release. The reissued letter is CFTC Staff Letter 26-05.

In the reissued letter, the CFTC revised the definition of “payment stablecoin” to specify that a national trust bank may be a permitted issuer of a payment stablecoin for the purposes of the no-action position, according to the release.

A no-action letter is one in which staff of a CFTC division or its Office of the General Counsel pledge that they will not recommend that the agency begin an enforcement action for failure to comply with a provision of the Commodity Exchange Act or CFTC regulations.

In the letter, the Market Participants Division (MPD) took a no-action position on certain requirements applicable to futures commission merchants that accept payment stablecoins and other non-securities digital assets as customer margin collateral and hold certain proprietary stablecoins in segregated customer accounts, per the release.

The CFTC said in the Friday press release that it did not intend to exclude national trust banks as issuers and that it realized later that it had done so, leading to it reissuing the letter.

CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said in the release that during President Donald Trump’s first term, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) chartered the first national trust banks with authority to custody and issue payment stablecoins and that those banks play an important role in the payment stablecoin ecosystem.

“I’m pleased that the CFTC staff is amending its previously issued no-action letter to expand the list of eligible tokenized collateral to include payment stablecoins issued by these institutions,” Selig said. “With the enactment of the GENIUS Act and the CFTC’s new eligible collateral framework, America is the global leader in payment stablecoin innovation.”

It was reported in October 2025 that there has been a rush of FinTechs seeking federal bank charters in the wake of the GENIUS Act. The GENIUS Act created a new federal charter category for “permitted payment stablecoin issuers,” along with a regulatory framework they must follow.

PYMNTS reported in December 2025 that the GENIUS Act created a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins by clarifying reserve requirements, issuer oversight and consumer protections.