OCC

Public comments on the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's GENIUS Act implementing regulations highlighted the rift between banks and crypto firms over the permissibility of yield on stablecoin holdings, an issue that has stalled crypto market structure legislation for months.

Even as they continue to press for additional changes, banks get some wins from the revised Basel capital framework and a ballpark estimate of their capital outlook for the next few years.

There's been an onslaught of nonbank financial technology company charter applications and approvals already this year.

Banks weighing stablecoin partnerships need to know whose playbook regulators will endorse before another major crypto theft tests the question.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Thursday finalized a rule lowering the community bank leverage ratio from 9% to 8% as well as extending compliance deadlines. 

The credit startup is seeking a limited-purpose charter from federal regulators through the Competitive Equality in Banking Act's credit card bank carveout.

The stablecoin provider recently applied for a national trust bank charter from the OCC after acquiring a New York trust charter last year.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency sent an interim final rule to the Office of Management and Budget that would preempt a controversial Illinois state law banning the collection of interchange fees on taxes and tips interchange.

After a nearly two-decade long "ice age" in which few new banking charters were granted, regulators have shrugged off a zero-failure mentality and are allowing some risk back into the system.

On-chain infrastructure is making idle balances obsolete. The OCC needs to act before banks lose the ability to compete in a market where consumers no longer tolerate below-market-rate returns.

The regulator argues the plans were costly, too theoretical and ineffective, eliminating the financial crisis-era requirement as part of the Trump Administration's deregulatory push.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said one of the early messages he is hearing from banks and supervisors revolves around an uneven playing field between small banks and their core providers, but suggested formal rules to address the problem are not imminent.

The digital asset company, currently partnered with firms like Morgan Stanley and One Pay, is seeking its own national trust bank charter from the OCC.

While the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's recently published stablecoin rule bars stablecoin issuers from offering yield on holdings, there is enough wiggle room in the proposal — and unfinished business in Congress and the courts — for rewards to ultimately be accepted.

The proposed national trust charter company would be a wholly owned subsidiary of Morgan Stanley. The application was filed on Feb. 18.

A final rule published by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Friday will formalize a 2021 interpretive guidance allowing national trust banks to perform non-fiduciary custody. The banking industry complained that the rule runs counter to the traditional scope of the charter. 

The agency's 400-page GENIUS Act proposal sets capital, reserve and operational rules to govern how stablecoin issuers may operate. 

The heads of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and National Credit Union Administration, as well as the Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision, will testify in the Senate Thursday morning in their first joint appearance in the upper chamber since being confirmed.

If the company gets final approval, it will be the newest crypto firm to receive a charter in recent months.

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