The Financial Stability Board has warned G20 finance ministers and central bank governors that global stablecoins can become widely used in jurisdictions that do not license or directly supervise their issuers, creating a cross-border oversight gap. In a new note ahead of the G20 summit, FSB Chair Andrew Bailey said national stablecoin frameworks are developing at different speeds and that the treatment of foreign-issued stablecoins remains uncertain in many markets.
Bailey stressed that a global stablecoin arrangement may span issuers, reserve managers, banks, custodians, exchanges, wallets and payment providers across multiple legal systems. Even when each entity is regulated somewhere, the country where the token gains broad use may only receive partial information needed to assess consumer and financial-system risks. The paper distinguishes between reserve solvency and crisis oversight: strong backing does not guarantee that a supervisor can obtain timely data, coordinate across borders, or protect domestic users relying on local intermediaries.
The FSB's four priorities are monitoring cross-border exposure, implementing consistent standards based on its 2023 recommendations, sharing information between supervisors, and planning for disruption or insolvency before stress occurs. The report notes that local platform rules cannot supervise an offshore issuer. For example, ESMA has instructed MiCA-authorised platforms to stop new access to non-compliant stablecoins, but that does not make European regulators the supervisors of every overseas issuer.
While stablecoins can move instantly, the FSB warns that the institutions needed to manage stress, including banks, custodians, payment processors, auditors and courts, operate under slower national procedures. The board frames the issue as one of preparedness rather than a verdict on any single token, but argues that responsibility and legal authority must be clear before a globally distributed stablecoin becomes too important for one country to handle alone.
