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The American Bankers Association is pulling out every lobbying tool in its arsenal to gut yield provisions from the CLARITY Act before the Senate Banking Committee votes on May 14, 2026. ABA President Rob Nichols recently rallied bank executives on a call, urging them to personally lobby senators against bill language that would allow crypto firms to offer interest-like rewards on stablecoins.
The $2 trillion problem
On April 13, the ABA published its own study estimating that yield-bearing stablecoins could balloon the stablecoin market from roughly $300 billion today to $2 trillion. That kind of growth, the ABA argues, would come largely at the expense of traditional bank deposits.
The ABA’s position is that such a shift would undermine banks’ ability to fund consumer loans, mortgages, and other credit products.
The White House Council of Economic Advisers published an analysis on April 8 that reached the opposite conclusion, finding that stablecoins would not pose systemic risks to the banking sector. The White House framing leaned toward encouraging innovation rather than protecting incumbents.
Political battle lines sharpen
The Senate Banking Committee is expected to release revised text for the CLARITY Act on May 11, with potential amendments circulating as early as May 12.
Senator Bernie Moreno has already made his position clear, and he’s not siding with the banks. Moreno criticized the ABA’s lobbying push, characterizing it as evidence that the “banking cartel” is panicking over competition from stablecoins.
Senator Moreno described the ABA’s response as indicating the “banking cartel” is in “panic mode” over stablecoins and the competitive threat they represent.
The ABA, for its part, is framing the issue as one of consumer protection and financial stability. Their argument centers on the idea that stablecoins offering yield without FDIC insurance create a false equivalence in consumers’ minds.
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