The American Bankers Association warns: Allowing stablecoins to pay interest will accelerate deposit outflows and severely impact community bank lending

According to an article in the American Bankers Association (ABA) Journal, experts including the ABA's chief economist point out that the recent research report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) on the issuance of yield from payment stablecoins raises the wrong questions and may mislead policymakers.

The CEA report mainly explores "how prohibiting the issuance of yield from payment stablecoins will affect bank lending," concluding that banning yields would only increase bank lending by about $1.2 billion, with minimal impact.

However, the ABA believes that the real policy concern is not the consequences of "prohibition," but the risks that may arise from "allowing" the issuance of yield from payment stablecoins: accelerating deposit outflows, allowing yields to stimulate households and businesses to move funds from bank deposits (especially community banks) to stablecoins, which would have a significant impact when the market size expands to $1-2 trillion. ABA analysis shows that loans in Iowa alone could decrease by $4.4 billion to $8.7 billion as a result.

Impact on community banks: Deposit outflows will force community banks to replace funding with higher-cost wholesale financing (such as Federal Home Loan Bank advances), raising their funding costs and thereby reducing loans to local households and small businesses. It is not a harmless "reshuffling": The CEA believes that deposits are merely "reshuffled" within the banking system, with overall impact being minimal.

However, the ABA points out that deposits flowing from community banks to a few large institutions or stablecoin reserve accounts will harm sectors that rely on relationship-based bank lending. The ABA believes that prohibiting the issuance of yield from payment stablecoins is a prudent protective measure that allows stablecoins to mature as a tool for payment innovation rather than becoming a source of economic risk that substitutes for insured deposits.