Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey (who is also the chair of the Financial Stability Board) said on Wednesday at an event hosted by the Institute of International Finance that the world is still moving too slowly on one shared set of rules for crypto industry’s stablecoins.
He said work on international standards for stablecoins has lost speed over the past year, even as these tokens keep getting deeper into the global financial system.
Andrew also tied the debate to a basic issue, saying stablecoins only work if people trust they can redeem them at full value every time. That is the point behind what he called assured value. Andrew said:
“We do have to have international standards to it to underpin assured value. I don’t think we can have a situation where we’ve got different rules of engagement in different countries for that.”
Andrew Bailey pushes countries to align stablecoins rules before gaps widen
Andrew’s warning comes as Britain and America’s Trump administration are both trying to build their individual local frameworks.
The United States has already taken another step on its own side. The Department of the Treasury published a long-awaited notice of proposed rulemaking, or NPRM, that would force stablecoin issuers to meet tough sanctions compliance standards under the GENIUS Act.
On April 8, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, jointly released the proposal. It set out requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers, also called PPSIs, focused on stopping illicit finance.
The proposal says PPSIs will need to follow the same financial crime compliance duties that already apply to other US financial institutions once the GENIUS Act regime becomes fully active in January 2027.
Those duties include building AML/CFT and sanctions compliance programs with senior management oversight, carrying out financial crime risk assessments, using risk-based policies for customer due diligence and related checks, naming a responsible AML/CFT officer, running staff training, and making sure AML controls go through independent auditing and testing.
For US officials, stablecoins are not getting a lighter lane.
South Korea fights over stablecoins as Circle courts lawmakers and banks
Meanwhile, over in South Korea, lawmakers and central bank officials are having this huge beef over whether tech companies should be allowed to also issue stablecoins, or just banks.
That battle pulled in Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire this week. Speaking to the press in Seoul, Jeremy said Circle has no plan to launch a won-pegged digital token right now, but the company is watching the debate in the National Assembly closely. He said:
“If a legal pathway is established for global companies like Circle to legally enter and operate, just as we have done in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Europe, we are very willing to obtain a license and establish a South Korean branch.”
Jeremy has also been meeting South Korean banking chiefs and some of the country’s biggest crypto firms. He has been offering Circle’s technical support to local companies that may want to issue stablecoins once regulators allow it.
His remarks landed while South Korean politicians are stuck in a fight that looks similar to the one in Washington over the Clarity Act, the crypto market bill that has sat gridlocked on Capitol Hill for months.
Failing to finish the new stablecoins regulatory would also be a serious blow for President Lee Jae-myung, who promised us won-pegged stablecoins during last year’s campaign and said he will pass legislation if he won power.
Since his June election victory, Lee and his administration have run into resistance from the banking sector and the Bank of Korea.
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