Overview
- Representatives Young Kim and Sam Liccardo introduced the PACE Act, a bipartisan bill that gives regulated non-bank payment firms a clear route to use core Federal Reserve services like Fedwire, FedACH and FedNow.
- The draft creates an OCC-run “Registered Covered Provider” status that lets eligible firms apply for limited-use Fed accounts, a model often called “skinny master accounts” that offers payment access without a full bank charter.
- Eligibility would center on scale, such as holding 40 or more state money-transmitter licenses or a state depository charter, which targets large payments and crypto firms that already operate nationwide and face heavy licensing burdens.
- The bill ties direct access to strict safeguards, including one-to-one reserves held in cash, deposits at the Fed, U.S. Treasury bills or equivalent tokenized instruments to protect customer funds.
- Crypto and fintech trade groups including the Financial Technology Association, the Blockchain Association, the Digital Chamber and the Crypto Council for Innovation endorsed the measure, which now moves into congressional debate over oversight, risk and competition.