America’s Credit Unions takes on crypto policy as stablecoin rules take shape

Chief Advocacy Officer Kathleen Coulombe is pushing to ensure credit unions get the same digital asset opportunities as banks before Congress locks in the rules.

Credit unions have spent decades arguing they deserve a seat at the same table as banks. Now, with stablecoin legislation moving through Congress and the regulatory perimeter around digital assets hardening, America’s Credit Unions is making sure that argument gets heard before the rules are written without them.

On October 11, 2026, America’s Credit Unions, known as AmCU, held a policy discussion led by Chief Advocacy Officer Kathleen Coulombe, covering three interconnected issues: the upcoming lame-duck session of the 119th Congress, lessons drawn from previous reconciliation fights, and the evolving regulatory landscape around crypto and stablecoin yields.

Why credit unions care about stablecoins

For credit unions, the concern is practical. If members can park money in a stablecoin yielding competitive returns, the logic goes that deposits could quietly walk out the door. AmCU has flagged this risk directly, warning that certain stablecoin provisions may trigger deposit flight and could run afoul of prohibitions built into the GENIUS Act itself.

The GENIUS Act is the legislative framework that has emerged as the central vehicle for stablecoin regulation. For credit unions, its most consequential feature is a provision designating the National Credit Union Administration, or NCUA, as the supervisory authority for credit unions acting as stablecoin issuers or custodians. That designation matters because it keeps credit union oversight within a regulator that understands the credit union model, rather than handing jurisdiction to an agency more accustomed to bank supervision.

AmCU’s position is straightforward: credit unions should be able to offer the full range of digital asset services, covering custody, payments, lending, and staking, without carrying a heavier regulatory load than their bank competitors. Coulombe, who joined AmCU on April 20, 2026 with two decades of advocacy experience behind her, is the person making that case to lawmakers.

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The NCUA’s new reporting framework

Regulators are not waiting for Congress to finish its work. NCUA proposals circulated in October 2026 would introduce 26 new stablecoin-specific accounts into the quarterly Call Reports that credit unions already file. The additions are designed to give the NCUA sharper visibility into custody arrangements, issuer exposure, and the composition of digital asset holdings at the institutions it supervises.

Comments on the proposals are due by December 8, 2026, with potential implementation of the new reporting measures targeted for March 2027.

Running alongside the GENIUS Act in the legislative conversation is the CLARITY Act, introduced as H.R. 3633, which addresses broader digital asset market structure questions. Where the GENIUS Act is specifically about stablecoins, the CLARITY Act takes on the wider question of how digital assets are classified and regulated across the financial system. AmCU’s advocacy tracks both, because the outcome of each shapes the competitive environment credit unions will operate in.

The lame-duck window and what comes after

The timing of the October 11 discussion was deliberate. A lame-duck congressional session is the stretch of legislative calendar between an election and the seating of a new Congress. AmCU is clearly trying to use it well. The discussion also drew on lessons from previous reconciliation efforts, a reference to the budget reconciliation process that Congress uses to pass certain fiscal legislation with a simple majority rather than the 60-vote threshold that applies to most Senate business.

The deposit flight concern AmCU has raised is also worth tracking closely. If stablecoin yields consistently outpace what credit unions can offer on deposits, and if the regulatory environment makes it harder for credit unions to compete by offering their own stablecoin products, the membership base that credit unions have built over decades could gradually erode toward platforms that operate outside the traditional depository system. AmCU is one of the louder voices in that design process.