OCC

A group of Senate Democratic lawmakers warn proposed rule change would handcuff regulators from stopping risky bank behavior before it causes financial harm.

The Office of the Comptroller's interpretation of federal trust powers has opened the door for dozens of charter applications by nonbank crypto firms in recent months. Some experts say the agency's interpretation may push the ambiguous statute beyond its limits.

The Brazil-based fintech got conditional approval from the OCC to bring its digital banking services to U.S. customers.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said in a letter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that the OCC "intends to act consistent with this duty rather than your demand."

Efforts to exclude crypto firms from the provision of a number of different core financial services are doomed to fail. The only correct response is to provide the prudential regulation necessary to assure safe and sound operation.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said Friday afternoon that regulators should scale back what he characterized as costly and ineffective bank-prepared resolution plans and shifting resolution responsibility onto bank regulators. 

A report from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, released Thursday found that most sudden account closures were spurred by supervisory pressure rather than political or religious bias on the part of the banks, a finding that is at odds with the White House's framing of the issue.

Following President Trump's aggressive bank deregulation agenda, the FDIC and OCC, and occasionally the increasingly politicized Fed, are in a race to slash compliance requirements. Bankers should remember that the pendulum can always swing back.

The proposed rule codifies the ability for trust companies to conduct non-fiduciary activities, something banks say Congress never intended, but that OCC says has long been the case.

Conditional approval of a national bank charter used to be a virtual guarantee that an institution would open its doors. But the OCC's recent treatment of Erebor Bank suggests that banks with conditional approvals still have work to do.

Under a proposed rule, the agency would let most nationally chartered firms off the hook for heightened regulatory standards. The rule would raise the bar from $50 billion to $700 billion of assets and leave only eight firms subject to heightened regulation.

The megabank cleared a regulatory hurdle when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency freed it from a July 2024 amendment to a consent order. Two other orders, one from the OCC and the other from the Federal Reserve, remain in place.

Bank groups, crypto firms and regulators are divided over whether fiduciary digital-asset custody fits naturally within the national trust charter model — or whether, as critics argue, the agency is quietly reinventing the charter.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Friday approved national trust charter applications for five crypto firms, affirming the administration's push to allow crypto companies the ability to take deposits. 

Leading Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee sent a letter to Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C., pointing out the as-yet unsatisfied legal requirement for prudential regulators to appear in Congress semiannually.

Pornographers, private-prison operators and digital-asset firms were among the industries that major banks curbed ties with over moral or reputational concerns, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's preliminary findings in its "debanking" probe launched earlier this year.

In a new interpretive letter, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will allow banks to serve as middlemen for "riskless" crypto trades, extending existing brokerage authority for securities to digital assets.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said digital asset firms' trust charter bids fit into the historic scope of the charter, refuting claims that a 2021 interpretive letter he authored as OCC General Counsel expanded the charter's scope.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced Friday that they are withdrawing from a 2013 interagency leveraged lending guidance, arguing it was overly restrictive, pushed activity to nonbanks and sidestepped official rulemaking.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said in an exclusive interview with American Banker Monday that regulators must bring more new entrants into the banking industry, establish a level playing field between banks and fintechs, and shore up supervision amid mounting legal scrutiny.