Bank regulators testify in House: Live coverage

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., questioned Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould on an August report in which Anduril founder Palmer Luckey — who is vying for a de novo national trust charter to start digital bank Erebor — may have violated securities law by telling potential investors the firm expects regulators to approve the proposed charter by year end, citing Luckey's political connections to the Trump administration.

"I will ask unanimous consent to put into the record an article from the Business Insider from August 8, 2025," said Sherman, who pushed the regulator to investigate the matter with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"If the memo was lying, that is securities fraud — you can't go to prospective investors and say, 'We're going to be successful' if you're making it up. On the other hand, if he was telling the truth, that is much worse — because he's part of what is described in the article as a million dollar program to give money to Republicans — he was going to get his bank charter approved much more quickly by the OCC," Sherman said. "Mr. Gould, since I assume he didn't use political connections to get his bank charter approved more quickly, have you talked to the SEC about securities fraud, when a man raises money for his bank by claiming that you're a corrupt organization?"

Gould said he was, "not familiar with all the allegations made in that article," continuing to say that he is, "not responsible for the securities laws," and "not familiar with that."

Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman expressed support for the CDFI Fund, responding to a question from House Financial Services Committee ranking member Maxine Waters, D-Calif., on the subject.Bowman said the CDFI Fund plays a "unique role in expanding access to capital and to financial services."

"The Federal Reserve continues to have a program that supports CDFIs from a technical perspective, which is called partnership for progress," said Bowman. "These are important investments that the Federal Reserve continues to make."

Waters noted, while directing her question to Bowman, that the two spoke last week and said she was pleased to learn that Bowman "support[s] diversity, equity and inclusion."

Acting FDIC Chairman Travis Hill said that revenue to the Deposit Insurance Fund, the pot of money that the agency uses to resolve failed banks, would need to increase if the deposit insurance amount increased. 

Congress is considering raising deposit insurance for most noninterest bearing business accounts to $10 million, a dramatic increase from the current $250,000. Critics of the proposal say that the increase would also increase demand on the DIF, meaning that banks who would largely not benefit from the increase would wind up paying more in assessment fees. 

"Let's say we raise the deposit insurance coverage amount 100 times to what it is now making, meaning the denominator goes way up," House Financial Services Chairman French Hill asked Travis Hill. "Normally for the FDIC to meet its statutory minimum, wouldn't it need to raise assessments as well?" 

"If no other changes are made and the denominator goes up, then that's correct. In order to achieve the same reserve ratio, revenue coming into the DIF would have to increase,"Travis Hill said.

Jonathan Gould, who leads the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said that the agency will continue to investigate banks who might have closed the accounts of individuals with certain political or religious beliefs. 



Gould has consistently insisted that the OCC will target banks, rather than just regulators, in the "debanking" narrative. Republicans have said that banks have closed the accounts of political conservatives or Christians due to their beliefs, without offering evidence of widespread practice, or that those peoples' or organizations' beliefs contributed to their account closure. 



Nonetheless, the OCC has looked to target banks over the practice. 



"We are currently implementing the President's Executive Order on Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans by, among other things, reviewing the activities of the largest national banks and investigating complaints of alleged debanking," Gould said in his testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. "We will be considering options for evaluating whether and to what extent non-financial factors may have influenced or impacted core banking functions such as credit underwriting practices."