Rep. French Hill opposes letting payment stablecoins pay interest, calls for market‑structure approach

Rep. French Hill, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he opposes allowing payment stablecoins to pay yield and urged Congress and regulators to focus on market structure and sales‑practice rules.

"I don't believe a payment stable coin tokens should pay yield," Hill said in a television interview. He criticized current Clarity Act language for what he described as weak anti‑money‑laundering and Bank Secrecy Act protections and said banks and community banks would not accept a framework that allows interest without adequate legal protections.

The interview touched on public disputes between bank executives and crypto leaders. The host recounted comments by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and a response from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Hill said members in both chambers, including senators Tim Scott and John Boozman as well as others who worked on compromise language, have sought a landing spot that could win bipartisan support.

Hill argued that Treasury rulemaking could address sales practices between bank issuers and non‑bank issuers and that banks — through processors, fintech partnerships and tokenization technology — are positioned to offer competitive, faster settlement options.

The host also cited an April Treasury Department report that, the host said, estimated stablecoins could produce as much as $6.6 trillion in deposit outflows. The host additionally read a statement from the president of the Independent Community Bankers of America urging Congress to extend prohibitions on payments of yield to crypto intermediaries; Hill reiterated his position that payment stablecoins should not pay interest and said he expected fight and close scrutiny in markup.

Hill described Republican‑led regulatory changes as focusing supervision on safety and soundness and noted the House had passed community‑bank tailored compliance relief he said would improve safety and soundness.

He did not announce new legislation in the interview; he said the committee and Senate negotiators were working toward compromise language and that Treasury regulation would be an important tool to implement sales‑practice rules if needed.