Winston’s Financial Services Industry Group is closely monitoring debanking regulations and advising global financial institutions on customer onboarding and due diligence.

In this alert, Jack Knight, Carl Fornaris, Patrick Doerr, and Arman Aboutorabi examine Senator Thom Tillis’s (R-NC) proposed Ensuring Fair Access to Banking Act. Although the bill is nominally designed to “limit the circumstances under which a Federal financial regulator may require a financial institution to terminate a specific account,” it in fact proposes much more.

Senator Thom Tillis’s discussion draft of the Ensuring Fair Access to Banking Act would create a single federal “fair access” standard prohibiting “debanking” except in defined circumstances, grant enforcement authority to federal and state regulators, and preempt state fair-access laws. These changes could impact account-opening, maintenance, and exit decisions and increase litigation exposure. Read the full alert for key implications, open questions, and practical steps institutions can take now.

On September 19, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to solicit public comment on questions relating to the implementation of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. Through this ANPRM, Treasury sought feedback on a wide range of potential regulatory issues, including clarity around issuance and marketing restrictions, compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) obligations, anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions enforcement, coordination between state and federal oversight, foreign regulatory comparability, and tax implications.

Part three of Cari’s Legal Exchange explores Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement, regulatory agency crossover, and the challenges of delisting from government sanctions lists.