OCC

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's decision to offer a special-purpose charter for fintech firms may entice more players than expected.

The OCC's limited-purpose fintech charter will separate the healthiest fintech companies from the unhealthy ones — leading fintech one step closer to disrupting the incumbents.

Two influential Democratic senators' surprise objections to the OCC's fintech charter show that the initiative may be more politically fraught than the industry and agency expected.

In a letter Monday to Comptroller Thomas Curry, Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., registered their strong opposition to the concept of the charter, which would allow certain types of fintech companies to avoid state licensing requirements by obtaining a limited-purpose national bank charter.

HSBC was fined $32.5 million for failing to comply with a 2011 consent order that directed the bank to revamp its mortgage servicing and foreclosure practices.

The persistent opposition to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — which has been fierce since day one — has been puzzling, and has been cloaked in misleading arguments about the structure of the agency.