On September 30, Treasury, on behalf of the Stablecoin Certification Review Committee, issued an interim final rule establishing interim procedural regulations and forms for the Committee’s review of state certifications under Section 4(c) of the GENIUS Act, complementing Treasury’s separately proposed broad-based principles for determining a state’s regulatory regime meets the criteria for substantial similarity. Under the GENIUS Act, state-qualified payment stablecoin issuers with a consolidated total outstanding issuance of not more than $10 billion may opt for state regulation, provided the state’s payment stablecoin regulator certifies that its regulatory regime is substantially similar to the federal framework and the committee — chaired by the secretary of the Treasury and including the chair of the Fed and the chairman of the FDIC — approves the certification. The GENIUS Act is expected to take effect on January 18, 2027, at which time it will generally be unlawful to issue payment stablecoins in the U.S. without being a permitted payment stablecoin issuer, and the committee stated that the interim final rule was issued to ensure certification procedures are in place by that date.

The rule provides that a state’s payment stablecoin regulator may satisfy the one-year statutory deadline by submitting any form of certification, even if conditioned on additional planned legislative or regulatory work, by January 18, 2028, though a certification will not be considered formally submitted for Committee review until all required materials are complete. The committee must unanimously approve or deny an initial certification within 30 days after it is deemed complete. After a denial, the state has at least 180 days from notice of the denial to cure and resubmit. If the denial results from an act of Congress or a change in a federal regulation, interpretation or order, that period becomes the later of 180 days or two years from the law’s enactment or the federal action’s publication. A state whose resubmission is denied again may appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. If a state fails to timely file an annual recertification, the Committee stated that its certification approval would be suspended. The rule is effective September 30, though certifications will not be accepted until Paperwork Reduction Act approval is obtained, and Treasury will post a notice on its website when it begins accepting them. Comments are due by November 30.