As lawmakers work to unify crypto and traditional finance under one rulebook, U.S. banks are pressing Congress to narrow how digital dollars earn returns and how financial data gets shared.
The American Bankers Association’s (ABA) 2026 policy priorities call for banning yield on payment stablecoins and revising open banking rules to promote what it describes as consumer protection and competitive balance.
Critics – largely in the crypto and fintech industry – argue the approach would tilt the playing field toward banks by limiting how crypto wallets, stablecoin issuers, and fintech apps reach users during a pivotal moment for U.S. crypto regulation.
Those positions land as the Senate struggles to advance a sweeping crypto market structure bill that would define how federal regulators oversee digital asset markets. Stablecoin yield has emerged as one of the most contentious issues in those talks, contributing to last week’s postponement of a key Senate Banking Committee markup after Coinbase withdrew support.
On stablecoins, the ABA and large bank executives have warned that yield-bearing tokens could act as substitutes for bank deposits, pulling funding out of the banking system and reducing lending capacity. Bank leaders, like Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, have cited the risk of trillions of dollars in potential deposit outflows if stablecoin rewards are not explicitly curtailed in the market structure legislation.
The open banking fight is more nuanced but closely linked. Section 1033 is designed to give consumers the right to freely share their financial data with third-party services, a critical on-ramp for crypto wallets, stablecoin apps, and exchanges.
Banks have called for revisions that clarify liability and standards for data access, while fintech and crypto groups argue those changes would allow banks to impose fees or restrictions that undermine open banking in practice.
For the ABA, both fights point to the same objective. By tightening the rules around stablecoin yield and reshaping how open banking is implemented, the group is pushing to ensure that crypto’s integration into the financial system happens on bank-defined terms.
As lawmakers hash out the market structure bill, the ABA’s blueprint signals that the banking industry wants digital dollars and data flows to sit firmly inside the regulated banking perimeter