UK stablecoin issuers have 29 days to tell the Bank of England how joint regulation should work once a coin is labelled systemic. The Bank and the FCA published their approach paper on 30 June. Responses on how Bank rules apply to issuers that transition into joint regulation, or that are recognised as systemic at launch, close on 30 September 2026. That is the same day the FCA opens its cryptoasset authorisation window, which runs through 28 February 2027. The mandatory regime begins on 25 October 2027. The calendar is no longer a discussion paper. It is an application date. See the separate Treasury plan to give the Bank a payments-innovation objective, due back in the Lords on 7 and 9 September.
The split is statutory. The FCA regulates all UK-issued qualifying stablecoins and, in due course, their use in retail payments, under PS26/10. HM Treasury can recognise an issuer as systemic under the Banking Act 2009. Once it does, issuance sits under the Bank and the FCA together. The Bank's June Code of Practice consults on T+0, 24-hour, redemption, a minimum 30% central-bank deposit backing, and a temporary £40 billion issuance guardrail per coin. New systemic-at-launch firms can hold up to 95% of backing in short-term UK government debt at first. The Bank judges scale, use, substitutability, and interconnectedness case by case. The same turnover in crypto trading is not the same risk as everyday retail payments.
What 30 September actually decides
The comment file is about transition, not the existence of the two-part regime. Issuers already authorised by the FCA need to know which of their rules are disapplied when Threadneedle Street arrives, how long they have to meet Bank requirements, and how PRA group rules interact if a bank sits in the same holding company. Full alignment is not the aim. The Bank's financial-stability objective is tighter than the FCA's consumer-protection and competitiveness duties. Firms that want a single rulebook will not get one. Firms that want a map of who supervises which line item still have four weeks to ask.
Applications open before the Lords finish the bill
Crypto firms can file for FCA authorisation from 30 September even while the Financial Services and Markets Bill is still taking amendments on the Bank's innovation mandate. That mismatch is operational, not fatal. The gateway that opened on 30 June already produced the first full cryptoasset licences. A comment letter on systemic transition does not replace an authorisation pack. It does decide whether a sterling coin that scales into payments in 2027 walks into a known Bank perimeter or an argument. The government's page, not a LinkedIn summary, is the source.