GeorgiaHB 12722025-2026 Regular SessionHouse

Banking and finance; licensing of payment stablecoin issuers; provisions

Sponsored By: Demetrius Douglas (Democrat), Scott Hilton (Republican), Todd Jones (Republican), Billy Mitchell (Democrat), Noel Williams (Republican), Bruce Williamson (Republican)

Signed by Governor

Banks & BankingBanking and Financial InstitutionsGeneral Bill

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

17 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 7 costs, 7 mixed.

Stronger reserve protection for stablecoin holders

Licensed issuers must keep identifiable reserves worth at least $1 for every $1 of outstanding stablecoins. Allowed assets include cash, specified deposits, short-term Treasuries, qualifying Treasury-backed agreements, and government money market funds. Treasury securities must meet 93-day maturity limits; other liquid federal assets need regulator approval, and tokenized reserves must follow applicable law. Issuers generally cannot pledge or reuse reserves, except for specified margin, custody, and redemption needs. Redemption-related agreements must last 93 days or less and meet clearing or state approval rules. In bankruptcy and other listed financial distress cases, reserves are held in trust for holders and generally protected from other creditors. Issuers and their officers must preserve and account for those reserves.

Reserve shortfalls can freeze stablecoin redemptions

An issuer that fails to maintain required reserves must calculate their current market value. If backing falls below one-to-one, it must add enough capital or halt redemptions. The alternative requires holding reserves to maturity and distributing them to holders under the federal GENIUS Act. The response must occur soon enough to reduce the risk of a run on reserves. Georgia can order redemptions halted for noncompliance and pursue license revocation or receivership.

Stablecoin sales face limits, personal transfers exempt

Georgia limits payment stablecoin issuance to permitted issuers. Beginning July 18, 2028, stablecoins offered or sold must come from licensed, permitted, or state-qualified issuers. The covered restrictions exclude lawful, direct transfers between individuals acting for themselves without an intermediary. They also exclude transfers between one person’s U.S. and foreign accounts offered by the same parent company. Transactions using wallets that let individuals hold their own digital assets are also exempt.

Advance fee notices for stablecoin customers

Licensed stablecoin issuers must publish a clear policy explaining how customers can redeem their stablecoins promptly. They must explain purchase and redemption fees in plain language. Before changing fees, issuers must give customers at least seven days’ notice. They must also tell customers they can redeem at the existing rate before the change takes effect.

Stablecoin customers cannot face forced purchases

Stablecoin issuers cannot require customers to buy another paid product from the issuer or its subsidiary to access services. They also cannot require customers to avoid a competitor’s products or services.

Stablecoin issuers cannot pay holding rewards

Licensed issuers cannot pay interest or yield solely because someone holds, uses, or keeps a payment stablecoin. The ban covers cash, tokens, and other forms of payment. It limits issuer-paid returns available to holders.

Georgia can revoke licenses and remove leaders

Georgia can suspend or revoke issuer licenses for listed violations, fraud, false statements, unsafe operations, insolvency, and specified unpaid judgments. A final chapter cease-and-desist order from the preceding five years can also support revocation. Beginning on the earlier of January 18, 2027, or 120 days after final GENIUS Act implementing regulations, additional powers depend on state appropriations. Georgia can remove directors, officers, employees, ultimate owners, or controlling shareholders for knowingly committing or attempting specified violations. It can also bar them from participating in the issuer and other entities it regulates. An administrative action already underway can continue even after an issuer withdraws or surrenders its license.

Issuers face staffing, risk, and ownership rules

Licensed issuers must always keep a Georgia office and meet the commissioner’s Georgia staffing minimum within one year of starting operations. Georgia must set capital, liquidity, governance, technology, operational, and third-party risk standards meeting or exceeding federal requirements. Issuers are limited to stablecoin issuance, redemption, reserve management, and listed custody services; supporting activities need express state permission. Unauthorized activities can trigger license suspension or revocation, while holders’ reserve claims rank ahead of non-stablecoin creditors. A person or group becoming an ultimate owner through an acquisition or control change needs prior state approval. That application requires financial and background information plus a fee whose amount is not stated.

Stablecoin issuers must check customers and transactions

Licensed issuers are financial institutions under the federal Bank Secrecy Act and must follow applicable money-laundering and sanctions rules. They must check customers, keep records, monitor and report suspicious transactions, and block or reject unlawful transactions. Issuers must certify their compliance programs within 180 days after approval and with every renewal application. Georgia can revoke a license for missing certification and refer knowingly false certifications to state or federal attorneys general.

Stablecoin issuers pay for annual state exams

Georgia must examine or investigate each licensed issuer at least once a year and can do so more often. It can review relevant affiliates, demand records and testimony, and use subpoenas. Covered firms and people must provide requested records and cannot knowingly hide, alter, destroy, or withhold them. Issuers pay examination fees set by rule and costs for outside experts helping with exams or investigations. Agreements can also require applicants to pay experts reviewing applications; the law states no fee amounts.

Stablecoin issuers pay licensing and renewal fees

Applicants must submit sworn applications with business and ownership details and pay a nonrefundable investigation and supervision fee. Georgia sets the fee by rule; approval makes it cover the first licensed year or remaining portion. Applicants and licensees also pay required criminal-history-check fees. Renewal applications are due December 1, and licenses generally expire December 31. Annual renewal fees and any supervision assessment are not refundable or prorated; renewals carry no investigation fee. Applicants who refuse registered mail, certified mail, or statutory overnight delivery must pay alternative service costs on demand. The law does not state these fee amounts.

Stablecoin violations trigger stop orders and fines

These powers begin on the earlier of January 18, 2027, or 120 days after final GENIUS Act implementing regulations. They depend on state appropriations. Georgia can immediately order licensed issuers to stop activity that appears to violate applicable laws, regulations, or department requirements. Those orders become final after 20 days unless the issuer requests a hearing in writing. Orders stopping unlicensed activity become final after 30 days without an administrative hearing, but must be canceled if proper authority is obtained and provided within that period. Violating a final decision or order can bring a penalty of up to $1,000 per offense, with each day counting separately. Georgia must consider required factors and can reduce, modify, or refund penalties; recipients have 10 days after notice to request a hearing.

Stablecoin holders get monthly reserve reports

Licensed issuers must post monthly reports showing outstanding stablecoins, reserve amounts and types, average maturity, and custody locations. Their chief executive and chief financial officers must certify each report’s accuracy to Georgia. Knowingly false certifications carry criminal penalties. Issuers must also submit annual audited financial statements using accepted accounting rules and disclose transactions with related parties. These requirements give holders more information and add audit and reporting costs for issuers.

Stablecoin marketing gains permissions and limits

Federally qualified and Georgia-licensed issuers can use “stablecoin” and “payment stablecoin” in signs and marketing. Licensed issuers cannot use names barred by the GENIUS Act or names related to Georgia or its government. Marketing cannot suggest legal-tender status, U.S. or Georgia issuance or approval, government insurance or guarantees, or federally insured deposit backing. Georgia also gains authority to prohibit advertising reaching the state from issuers lawfully operating outside Georgia.

Georgia licenses issuers without duplicate transfer licenses

The Georgia Payment Stablecoin Act takes effect on the earlier of January 18, 2027, or 120 days after final GENIUS Act implementing regulations are issued. It creates state licensing, supervision, and examination rules for payment stablecoin issuers. Licensed issuers also fall under banking rules covering personnel, disclosures, court review, dissolution, receivership, and currency-transaction reporting. Issuing, offering, selling, or redeeming stablecoins is not money transmission and requires no additional license or charter for permitted issuers. A permitted issuer without a Georgia stablecoin license must obtain a money transmission license for other activities that qualify.

Issuer records gain privacy and challenge rights

Georgia can use the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System and set participation rules, while keeping control of Georgia license decisions. Licensed issuers must have a way to challenge information Georgia enters in that system. Examination and investigation information generally stays confidential, limiting public access. Georgia can share records with regulators and law enforcement, disclose them for proceedings, and publish allowed issuer information. Public violation information must come from a final state decision. People providing required information or filing complaints generally have civil-liability protection unless they act with malice, fraud, or bad faith. The commissioner, staff, and agents also receive protection for carrying out their duties or publishing related reports.

Issuer screening comes with license decision deadlines

Georgia reviews issuers’ finances, fitness, and specified felony histories when deciding initial and renewal license applications. It can request fingerprints from applicants, licensees, directors, officers, and ultimate owners; conviction records remain confidential with a legal-inspection exception. Within 30 days, the department must say whether an application is substantially complete and identify missing information. Completeness requires paid fees, completed sections, and enough information for review. A complete application is approved automatically if the department does not decide within 120 days. Georgia must deny applications that fail licensing or safety tests, or involve qualifying chapter orders or license revocations within five years. Using an open, public, or centralized network alone is not grounds for denial.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Cosponsors

Greg Dolezal
Republican • Senate

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 243 • No: 27

Senate vote • 4/2/2026

PASSAGE

Yes: 50 • No: 1 • Other: 3

Senate vote • 3/31/2026

MOTION TO TABLE REMAINING LEGISLATION ON THE RULES CALENDAR

Yes: 39 • No: 10 • Other: 4

House vote • 3/4/2026