The US Federal Reserve on Thursday proposed new rules for issuers of dollar-backed cryptocurrency tokens known as stablecoins, taking another step towards implementing the regulatory framework established by last year’s GENIUS Act, according to Reuters.

The proposals would establish requirements for payment stablecoin issuers that are supervised by the Federal Reserve, including rules on reserves, capital and risk management. The Fed said the framework is intended to carry out responsibilities assigned to it under the GENIUS Act.

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Stablecoins to be fully backed by reserves

Under the proposed rules, Fed-supervised payment stablecoin issuers would be required to fully back their tokens with permitted reserve assets. These would include short-term US Treasury bills and other high-quality, liquid assets, according to the Federal Reserve.
The requirement is designed to ensure that issuers maintain sufficient assets to support the value of stablecoins issued under the federal framework.

Capital requirements for issuers

The proposal would also introduce standardized capital requirements for stablecoin activities. The requirements are intended to address credit and operational risks associated with payment stablecoin issuance.
Also Read | US stocks: S&P 500 ends nearly flat as US-Iran talks help stocks pare lossesThe Fed would additionally establish risk-management standards for supervised firms involved in stablecoin activities.

Rules for banks holding stablecoin reserves

The proposed framework would extend beyond stablecoin issuers to Fed-supervised banks that safeguard assets backing the tokens.

The rules would establish requirements for banks that provide custody services for stablecoin reserves and clarify which stablecoin-related activities Fed-supervised banks would be permitted to conduct.

Path for banks to issue stablecoins

The Fed is also proposing a separate application process for Board-supervised banks seeking approval to issue their own payment stablecoins.

Banks applying under the framework would have to provide information including a business plan and financial details. The proposal would also establish procedures covering appeals, hearings and final decisions on applications, according to a report by Reuters.

60-day public comment period

The Federal Reserve will accept public comments on the proposed rules for 60 days after their publication in the Federal Register.

The proposals represent a key step in putting the GENIUS Act’s federal stablecoin framework into practice and defining how banks and other supervised institutions can participate in the growing digital-asset payments market.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Around 86 lakh shares changed hands between promoter group entities of Adani Group‘s flagship firm Adani Enterprises in a deal worth Rs 2,498 crore through separate block deals on Friday.

The shares, representing a 0.63 per cent stake in the Ahmedabad-based conglomerate, were picked up by Adani Infra (India) Ltd and Adani Properties, according to data on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Adani Properties bought 51.50 lakh shares, while Adani Infra (India) acquired 34.50 lakh shares in the group’s flagship company.

The shares changed hands at an average price of Rs 2,905 apiece, taking the combined deal value to Rs 2,498.30 crore.

On the other side of the trades, promoter group entity Infinite Trade And Investment Ltd sold an equal number of shares at the same price, the data showed.

Following the sale, Infinite Trade And Investment’s holding in Adani Enterprises has dropped to 1.38 per cent from 2.01 per cent.
However, the transactions will not alter the combined shareholding of the promoters and promoter group entities in the company.

Shares of Adani Enterprises rose 0.57 per cent to close at Rs 2,916.50 apiece on the NSE.

NEW YORK — New York City officials issued a travel advisory Friday as a nor’easter approaches the region, with the storm’s forecast track shifting closer to the city and expected to bring heavy rain, strong winds and coastal flooding through Sunday morning.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York City Emergency Management announced the advisory would take effect beginning at 2 p.m. Friday and remain in place through Sunday, after the National Weather Service updated the storm’s projected path closer to the city. Mamdani addressed the shifting forecast directly. “The forecast path of this storm has moved closer to our city, and it is bringing more rain and stronger winds with it,” Mamdani said. “City workers are clearing catch basins, preparing for downed trees and positioning emergency resources in areas that could see coastal flooding.”

Forecasters expect the storm to deliver 2 to 3 inches of rain citywide, with some localized areas potentially seeing 4 to 5 inches where heavy rain repeatedly moves over the same locations. The heaviest rainfall is expected to arrive Saturday, potentially beginning early in the day and continuing through the remainder of the weekend.

Wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph are forecast from Friday night through Saturday night, with a wind advisory taking effect at 2 p.m. Friday alongside the travel advisory. City officials warned that already-saturated ground, combined with trees still carrying their full canopy of leaves this time of year, could increase the likelihood of downed branches and power lines during the height of the storm.

Coastal flooding represents a significant concern tied to the storm’s timing around this weekend’s high tides. The city identified two specific windows of heightened risk: Friday evening between roughly 7:30 and 8:30 p.m., and Saturday morning between approximately 7:30 and 8:40 a.m. Southern Queens, including the Rockaways and the Jamaica Bay area, along with portions of Staten Island and Brooklyn’s shorelines, face the highest risk of moderate coastal flooding during those periods.

New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Christina Farrell detailed the specific areas of greatest concern and urged residents to take precautions ahead of the storm. “We are particularly watching the Friday evening and Saturday morning high tides, especially in the Rockaways, around Jamaica Bay and along the Staten Island and Brooklyn shorelines,” Farrell said. “Move your car away from streets that regularly flood, secure anything outside that could become airborne and never drive or walk through floodwater.”

The city has activated its flash flood emergency plan in response to the storm and is coordinating directly with the National Weather Service, state agencies and utility providers as the storm approaches. Officials are urging residents to allow extra time for travel throughout the weekend and to check the status of transit, ferry and flight schedules before heading out. Residents living in basement or ground-floor apartments located in flood-prone areas were specifically advised to identify multiple exit routes from their homes in advance and be prepared to move to higher floors if conditions worsen during the storm.

City beaches, which officially closed for the season on September 13, remain closed with no lifeguards on duty during the storm. Forecasters are warning of a high risk of rip currents and dangerous surf conditions through the weekend, and swimming remains prohibited at city beaches during this period.

Beyond the flooding and wind concerns, officials are advising residents to take general storm preparation steps, including securing loose outdoor items that could be blown around by the strong winds, fully charging electronic devices ahead of potential power outages, and checking in on neighbors who may need additional assistance during the storm.

City officials reiterated standard emergency reporting guidance amid the storm preparations: residents facing an immediate danger should call 911, while non-emergency issues, including reports of downed trees or minor flooding, can be reported to the city’s 311 information line. New Yorkers can also sign up to receive official city emergency alerts directly by texting NOTIFYNYC to 692692 or visiting the city’s NotifyNYC website.

The advisory comes as New York City continues to face increasingly frequent severe weather events, with coastal flooding and heavy rainfall events becoming a recurring seasonal concern for low-lying neighborhoods across the five boroughs. With the storm’s heaviest impacts expected to arrive Saturday and continue through Sunday morning, city officials are urging residents throughout the affected areas to remain alert to updated forecasts and follow any additional guidance issued by New York City Emergency Management as the storm develops over the coming days.

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Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Select Water Solutions Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I’d now like to turn the call over to your host, Garrett Williams, Vice President, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Garrett Williams
Vice President of Corporate Finance & Investor Relations

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for Select Water Solutions conference call to discuss our announced acquisition of Pilot Water Solutions. With me today are John Schmitz, our Founder, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; Chris George, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Michael Skarke, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer; and Mike Lyons, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Technology Officer.

Before I turn the call over to John, I have a few housekeeping items to cover. A replay of today’s call will be available by webcast and accessible from our website at selectwater.com. There will also be a recorded telephonic replay until October 9, 2026. The access information for this replay was also included in the acquisition press release. Please note that the information reported on this call speaks only as of today, September 25, 2026, and therefore, time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of

Market regulator Sebi has barred realty firm Omaxe and five others from accessing the securities market for up to one year and imposed a fine totalling Rs 1.92 crore for allegedly creating an artificial public shareholding structure to meet minimum public shareholding requirements.

Omaxe has been restrained from accessing the securities market for three months, while promoters — Rohtas Goel, Jai Bhagwan Goel — group companies — Dream Home Developers Pvt Ltd and Guild Builders Pvt Ltd– have been barred for one year.

Sunil Goel, former Joint Managing Director of Omaxe, has also been prohibited from the securities market for one year, the order noted.

In its order passed on Thursday, Sebi said Omaxe failed to achieve the prescribed 25 per cent minimum public shareholding (MPS) through independent public shareholders, as certain entities had acquired the company’s shares using funds originating from Omaxe and its group entities.

Sebi noted that “minimum public shareholding requirements were artificially met through funding of certain entities to acquire shares of the company and such entities were thereafter disclosed as public shareholders”.

The regulator said that funds originating from Omaxe and group entities were routed through multiple entities and used to acquire its shares in the names of entities shown as public shareholders.
Omaxe and its group entities routed Rs 46.50 crore through DVM Realtors Pvt Ltd (DRPL), Garv Buildtech Pvt Ltd, and Jeet Builders Pvt Ltd (JBPL) to ultimately fund the acquisition of its own shares during the Offer for Sale (OFS) windows on June 3, 2013, and October 29, 2013, the regulator noted.”These transactions cannot, therefore, be viewed as isolated fund transfers or independent share acquisitions.

“The scheme and artifice lay in creating the appearance of independent public shareholding through entities whose acquisition of Omaxe shares had been financed through funds originating from Omaxe/group entities and thereafter using such holdings for representing regulatory compliance,” Sebi said in its 91-page order.

The regulator said the arrangement created the appearance of independent public shareholding, while the underlying fund trail showed otherwise.

After the June 3, 2013, offer for sale (OFS), exclusion of the funded holdings would have reduced Omaxe’s public shareholding from 16.21 per cent to around 14.57 per cent, the order said.

Similarly, after the October 29, 2013, OFS, public shareholding would have been around 19.04 per cent instead of the reported 20.97 per cent. Even after a subsequent bonus issue, excluding the funded holdings and the consequential bonus entitlement would have reduced the reported public shareholding from 25.01 per cent to around 22.71 per cent, Sebi said.

The regulator held that the arrangement constituted a “fraudulent and deceptive scheme and artifice” in connection with dealing in securities and found violations of provisions of the Sebi Act and Prevention of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices Regulations.

Sebi also found Omaxe and the concerned noticees liable for violations relating to minimum public shareholding and disclosure of shareholding patterns.

Accordingly, the entities have been “restrained from accessing the securities market and further prohibited from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in securities (including units of mutual funds), directly or indirectly, or being associated with the securities market in any manner, whatsoever” for up to one year.

Also, the regulator imposed a fine of Rs 1.92 crore on them. Individually, the regulator levied a fine of Rs 27 lakh each on Omaxe, Dream Home Developers, and Guild Builders, as well as Rs 37 lakh each on Rohtas Goel, Sunil Goel, and Jai Bhagwan Goel.

The US Federal Reserve is working on a plan to raise the asset thresholds that trigger stricter oversight of big banks, four people with knowledge of the matter said, which would allow some lenders to avoid costly additional regulation and potentially spur consolidation.

The central bank is expected to soon propose reindexing the thresholds where banks become subject to stress tests of their balance sheets, liquidity, capital and other more stringent rules, to account for inflation and economic growth, the people said. Three of the people said they expect the Fed to propose the changes later this year.

Current rules impose stricter requirements when a bank reaches $100 billion in assets, stepping up at $250 billion and again at $700 billion. Lenders say those thresholds, set in 2019, haven’t kept pace with the economy, subjecting banks to increasingly stringent oversight that exceeds the risks they pose.

Banks say crossing the $100 billion threshold typically requires major investment in compliance staff, risk management systems, stress-testing capabilities and regulatory reporting infrastructure that can run into tens of millions of dollars annually.

The Fed is considering reindexing the highest threshold closer to $1 trillion and some of the requirements triggered by the lower threshold closer to $150 billion, said the people, who declined to be named as they were discussing sensitive regulatory issues.

Banks that stand to benefit include U.S. Bancorp, Capital One, PNC Financial and Truist, which are closest to the $700 billion threshold, giving them more room to grow without incurring some of the toughest Fed oversight, including aspects of new incoming capital rules and daily reporting requirements to supervisors.
Western Alliance, Zions and several others, meanwhile, could grow beyond $100 billion without incurring all the requirements currently imposed on lenders in that category. Pinnacle Financial Partners and one or two other lenders sitting between $100 billion and $150 billion could even shed some requirements.A Fed spokesperson declined to comment. In January, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said the central bank would consider reindexing the thresholds and suggested using nominal GDP, but the Fed has not commented since then.

“The US economy has grown significantly over the past seven years, and it makes sense to have rules for all banks that will help consumers and small businesses through increased bank lending capacity and more competition,” a U.S. Bancorp spokesperson said.

The other banks either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

CHANGES COULD SPUR MID-SIZE BANK DEALS

The plan is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reform bank oversight which officials say is stifling lending and the economy. Bowman is also overhauling capital rules and other aspects of the Fed’s supervisory regime.

The changes could lead consolidation among mid-size lenders which have been holding off for fear of breaching the thresholds, the people said.

“Revised thresholds can reduce downsides of growth and change relative costs/benefits of acquisitions,” analysts at Truist wrote on Friday in response to Reuters’ story.

Banks with $50 billion to $700 billion of assets announced just 33 bank and thrift acquisitions over the past decade, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, with just seven such deals last year, including Fifth Third’s $10.9 billion acquisition of Comerica.

“We would expect this to unlock M&A activity among mid-cap and regional banks that have been in a holding pattern,” said James Stevens, partner at law firm Troutman Pepper Locke, adding bank boards would be able to assess deals on merit “rather than on the regulatory math.”

One banking industry executive said raising the $700 billion threshold would allow larger lenders to more effectively compete with the country’s four biggest consumer banks.

Critics of bank consolidation argue it harms consumers by reducing competition and services, while increasing systemic risks.

BANKS HAVE LONG ARGUED THRESHOLDS ARE ARBITRARY

Following the US financial crisis, the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act set supervisory thresholds, which Congress softened in 2018. That law mandates some requirements that only Congress can change, including stress tests for banks in the $100 billion bucket and “enhanced prudential standards” for those above $250 billion.

But the law also gave the Fed broad discretion, and the central bank imposed additional capital planning, liquidity and reporting requirements for the $100 billion category. It also created the $700 billion category to ensure sufficient oversight for big banks not deemed globally systemically important banks, which are subject to a separate regime.

Banks have long said the thresholds are arbitrary and can distort business decisions by encouraging banks to stay below them.

Reindexing using nominal GDP would incorporate inflation and economic growth. It could push the highest threshold to around $960 billion and the lower threshold for the additional Fed requirements to roughly $150 billion.

Democrats say Congress already watered down the rules in 2018, and asset thresholds, though imperfect, offer a simple way to calibrate requirements.

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