A new PACE Act bill would let qualified non‑bank payment firms tap Fed rails directly, cutting fees and delays while dovetailing with the GENIUS Act’s stablecoin regime.
Summary
- The new PACE Act would let qualified non-banks plug directly into Fed payment systems.
- Backers say it could cut delays and fees for U.S. consumers and businesses.
- Fintech and crypto groups are lining up behind the bill’s push to open payments.
A U.S. Congressman has proposed the PACE Act, a bill that would give qualified payment companies direct access to Federal Reserve payment rails in a bid to modernize the U.S. payments system.
Bill aims to open Fed rails to non-banks
According to market reports, the proposal would allow regulated non-bank providers to connect straight to systems such as Fedwire, FedACH and FedNow, aiming to reduce settlement delays, lower transaction fees and speed up transfers for consumers and businesses.
Early reaction has been positive from fintech and cryptocurrency industry groups, which see the legislation as a way to make the U.S. payments stack faster, cheaper and more competitive versus both private-sector alternatives and other jurisdictions experimenting with real-time rails.
A LinkedIn breakdown of the draft framework says the PACE Act would create a new federal category, “Registered Covered Provider,” overseen by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, giving eligible firms a statutory right to apply for Fed payment accounts without needing a full bank charter.
To qualify, companies would typically need either more than 40 state money transmitter licenses or a state depository charter, a threshold designed to capture large payment processors, remittance platforms and major crypto intermediaries already operating at national scale.
The same analysis suggests the bill would effectively “passport” those firms across all 50 states, short-circuiting today’s costly, fragmented licensing grind and replacing it with unified federal supervision plus strict reserve rules.
Those reserve provisions mirror elements of the recently enacted GENIUS Act, requiring 1:1 backing in cash, Federal Reserve deposits, U.S. Treasury bills or tokenized equivalents, a move pitched as a way to keep customer funds safe while giving non-banks access to central bank money.
In a note cited by Politico, one supporter argued that “we can reduce the burden of bank fees borne by too many American families by enabling broader access to innovative payment systems that deliver cheaper, faster, more reliable service,” framing the PACE Act as a consumer-focused reform rather than a giveaway to fintech.
If passed, the bill would sit alongside the GENIUS stablecoin framework and recent SEC moves on digital-asset accounting as part of a broader reshaping of U.S. market plumbing, potentially allowing large crypto and payments firms to move dollars over Fed rails instead of relying solely on correspondent banks.