WASHINGTON — Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Jelena McWilliams says bank-issued stablecoins “closely resemble” the nature of bank deposits, lending credibility to new proposals for federal stablecoin insurance.
Speaking to the Bipartisan Policy Center one day before she is set to resign from her post as FDIC leader, McWilliams said that one of the most recent things she had directed agency staff to study was whether stablecoins — a form of cryptocurrency often pegged to a fiat currency — can or should be insured by the government.
“A key question that the FDIC has been carefully exploring is whether a stablecoin, or the funds represented by a stablecoin, meets the definition of deposit under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, and relatedly, whether stablecoins could be eligible for deposit insurance,” McWilliams said.
“My personal view is that generally, bank-issued stablecoins closely resemble digital representation of deposits,” McWilliams added, urging the FDIC’s future leadership to “build off the work we have done and provide clarity to the public as soon as practicable.”
McWilliams’ public support for stablecoin insurance comes as
Notably, the draft bill would also create an insurance fund for nonbank stablecoin issuers that would be maintained by the FDIC. It would be a mirror image of the agency’s Deposit Insurance Fund that backs customer deposits in amounts up to $250,000 in the event of a bank failure.
McWilliams announced on Dec. 31 that she would
Following McWilliams’ departure, Gruenberg will take control of the FDIC as acting chair, his third time leading the agency since first arriving in 2005.
