Bank of America to launch its own USD-backed stablecoin in efforts to charm Trump

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan has confirmed that the bank plans to enter the stablecoin market, should US regulations allow it.

Speaking at a Washington, D.C. event on Tuesday, Moynihan said that the bank is preparing to launch a USD-backed stablecoin in efforts to align with self-proclaimed ‘crypto president’ Donald Trump’s agendas after he called them out for being biased against his people just last month.

“It’s pretty clear there’s going to be a stablecoin,” Moynihan said, adding that Bank of America will likely offer a product tied to US dollar deposit accounts.

Bank of America, which is 18th in the Fortune 500, invests about $4 billion in new technology yearly, Moynihan said. And running the system requires another $8 or $9 billion annually, he said. “So the impact is unbelievable,” he said.

BofA offered a mobile banking app for iPhone before other banks, Moynihan said. “Back then it was an unusual thing to have an app,” he said. “Everybody went to the websites. So that took off. We now have 40 million consumers who bank digitally with us all the time.” About 90% of the bank’s interactions with customers last year were digital, he said. The company launched its AI-powered assistant Erica in 2018.

Moynihan also responded to former President Donald Trump’s recent criticism regarding political de-banking. At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, Trump targeted major US banks like Bank of America, accusing them of de-banking conservatives.

Trump alleged that Bank of America, along with other banks, has been preventing certain conservative clients from using their services.

“We bank everybody,” Moynihan said. “But the real question was about over-regulation, frankly,” he said.

Moynihan pointed to interpretations of anti-money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act and know-your-customer regulations, and said that “there’s a lot of burden on the banking system” to report suspicious activity and analyze it.

Bank of America sometimes has “to close accounts and we can’t tell people why we did it,” which can create confusion, Moynihan said. 

Moynihan weighs in on crypto debanking

Moynihand acknowledged that debanking has been an issue in the crypto industry, “where the regulators said you can’t bank crypto operating companies, employees of crypto companies, etc.,” Moynihan said. “The operating company, they said, ‘That’s a high-risk activity, ask us for authority.’ And guess what? You would have never gotten the authority.”

The issue was the focus of a Senate Banking Committee hearing in early February, where lawmakers (led by the crypto-loving Senator Cynthia Lummis) and witnesses agreed de-banking is an issue, but couldn’t decide whether bank regulation or the lenders themselves are to blame.

In any case, Trump’s public lash out “opened the dialogue about how to get these regulations correct,” Moynihan said. One potential reform, he mentioned later, would be raising BSA reporting requirements for cash transactions, from the current $10,000 threshold.

Earlier this month, during an investor conference appearance, Moynihan said he wanted balance and “the right regulation.” “Give us a rational regulatory structure, and have it stick to the ribs,” Moynihan said Tuesday.

Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon - A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More