OCC announces 3% cut to assessments in 2021

WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will cut assessment fees for the third time in three years, the agency announced Tuesday.

Citing “increased operating efficiencies,” the OCC said that it would reduce assessment rates across the board by 3% for the 2021 calendar year, following a 10% cut in 2020 and another 10% cut in 2019.

“The 2021 assessment level provides sufficient resources that enable the agency to recruit, train, and retain the talent and experience necessary to perform its important mission and continue to invest in initiatives that improve the agency’s ability to ensure the safety, soundness, and fairness of the federal banking system,” the OCC said in a press release.

The 3% reduction will go into effect in the new year and apply to banks’ fees due in March and September of 2021.

In addition to the annual cuts the OCC has announced over the past few years, the national bank regulator also supplied temporary relief over the summer for banks with swollen balance sheets in the early months of the pandemic, when it allowed banks to use their pre-pandemic assets to calculate supervisory fees. (That one-time change expired in October.)