美国应如何监管稳定币

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在最近的播客中，美利坚大学法学教授希拉里·艾伦 (Hilary Allen) 将稳定币描绘成对银行系统乃至广大公众的危险威胁。在她看来，稳定币可能会破坏银行的稳定，并最终需要政府救助。

她发表此番言论之际，美国国会正在推动联邦层面监管稳定币。尽管任何稳定币法案在总统选举之年成为法律的可能性都很渺茫，但艾伦担心这些法案“给予了公众对稳定币的支持”。对她来说，“稳定币没有任何重要用途，坦率地说，应该被禁止。”

Marcelo M. Prates 是 Consensus 2024 的演讲者，是一位金融政策和监管专家，撰写有关货币、支付和数字资产的文章。

她的担忧是否合理？仅适用于那些反对竞争且不喜欢监管透明度的人。艾伦所描述的一种可怕且无用的时尚是过去 25 年来最具革命性的金融创新之一的升级版：由非银行机构发行的电子货币，或者简称为电子货币。

2000 年代初，欧盟认为是时候让更多人获得更快、更便宜的数字支付了。考虑到这一点，欧盟立法者制定了电子货币监管框架，并允许初创企业充分利用技术，即所谓的金融科技，以受监管和安全的方式提供支付工具。

其背后的想法很简单。由于银行是提供多种服务的复杂机构，面临更高的风险和更严格的监管，因此开设银行账户进行数字支付通常很困难且成本高昂。解决方案是为非银行机构建立一个单独的许可和监管制度，专注于一项服务：将他们从客户那里收到的现金转化为可通过预付卡或电子设备用于数字支付的电子货币。

实际上，电子货币发行机构的运作就像狭义的银行一样。法律要求他们保护或确保从客户处收到的现金，以便电子货币余额始终可以转换回现金而不会损失价值。由于它们是获得许可和受监管的实体，因此客户知道，除了严重的监管失败之外，他们的电子货币是安全的。

因此，很容易看出，绝大多数现有的稳定币，即以美元等主权货币计价的稳定币，只是具有一定功能的电子货币：由于它们是在区块链上发行的，因此它们不受国家支付系统的限制，并且可以全球流通。

Instead of a scary financial product, stablecoins are really “e-money 2.0,” with the potential to keep delivering on the original e-money promises of increasing competition in the financial sector, lowering costs for consumers, and advancing financial inclusion.

But for these promises to be fulfilled, stablecoins do need to be properly regulated at the federal level. Without federal law, stablecoin issuers in the U.S. will continue to be subject to state money transmitter laws that aren’t uniformly designed or consistently enforced when it comes to segregation of clients’ funds and integrity of assets kept in reserve.

Considering the decades-long experience of the European Union in e-money and improvements brought by other countries, an effective stablecoin regulation should be built around three pillars: granting of a non-bank license, direct access to central-bank accounts, and bankruptcy protection for backing assets.

First, it’d be contradictory to restrict stablecoin issuance to banks. The essence of banking is the possibility of holding deposits from the public that aren’t always 100% backed, which is traditionally known as “fractional reserve banking.” And that happens so that banks can make loans without using only their capital.

For stablecoin issuers, on the other hand, the goal is that each stablecoin is fully backed with liquid assets. Their sole job is to receive cash, offer a stablecoin in return, hold safely the cash received, and return the cash anytime someone comes with a stablecoin to redeem. Lending money isn’t a part of their business.

Stablecoin issuers, much like e-money issuers, are meant to compete with banks in the payments sector, especially in cross-border payments. They’re not supposed to replace banks or, worse, become banks.

That’s why stablecoin issuers should be granted a specific non-bank license, as happens for e-money issuers in the E.U., U.K., and Brazil: a simpler license with requirements, including capital requirements, that are proportionate to their limited activity and lower risk profile. They don’t need a banking license, nor should they be required to get one.

Second, and to reinforce their lower risk profile, stablecoin issuers should be able to have a central-bank account to hold their backing assets. Transferring the cash received from their customers to a bank account or investing it in short-term securities are typically safe options, but both can become riskier in times of stress.

Circle, a U.S. stablecoin issuer, had a hard time when Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failed, and $3.3 billion of its cash reserves (almost 10% of the total reserves) that had been deposited with SVB were temporarily unavailable. And several banks, including SVB, that were holding U.S. treasuries suffered losses after interest rates rose in 2022, and the treasuries’ market price declined, leaving some of them short on liquidity and unable to face withdrawals.

Read more: Dan Kuhn - What Visa’s ‘Organic’ Stablecoin Report Misses

为了避免银行系统或国债市场的问题蔓延到稳定币，应要求发行人将其支持准备金直接存入美联储。这一规则将有效消除美国稳定币市场的信用风险，并实现对稳定币支持的实时监管——不需要存款保险，也没有救助风险，就像电子货币一样，与银行存款相反。

请注意，非银行机构的中央银行账户并非史无前例。英国、瑞士和巴西等国家的电子货币发行机构可以直接通过央行保护用户的资金。

第三，法律应将客户的资金与发行人的资金分开考虑，并且如果稳定币发行人失败（例如，由于欺诈等运营风险的出现），客户的资金应不受任何破产制度的约束。

有了这一额外的保护层，稳定币用户可以在清算过程中快速重新获得资金，因为破产发行人的一般债权人将无法扣押客户的资金。同样，这被认为是电子货币发行者的最佳实践。

在有关稳定币监管的公开辩论中，令人震惊的做法可能会给心烦意乱的观众留下深刻印象。但是，对于那些关注的人来说，基于世界各地成功范例和经验的平衡论点应该占上风。

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