OCC

Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting writes that the Community Reinvestment Act has not kept pace with changes in banking and needs to be updated.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued more than 30 questions for the public as it begins an effort to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act.

Unilateral approaches to bank regulation are risky, but the OCC's plan to seek public comment independent of the other agencies could help shed light on a CRA debate that is now being waged internally.

The agency says it will act independently of other regulators to release a notice asking for public input on revamping the decades-old law.

An OCC charter for fintechs requires firms to meet a “financial inclusion” standard instead of conventional Community Reinvestment Act requirements. That’s a problem.

Before the passage of the recent regulatory relief law, only banks with assets of less than $1 billion were on an 18-month exam schedule.

The regulation implements a recent legislative provision dealing with how banks comply with post-crisis liquidity requirements.

The Troy, Mich., company is operating unfettered by regulatory orders for the first time in a decade, and its CEO says Flagstar now has the flexibility to pull the trigger faster on deals and accelerate its diversification beyond mortgages.

The Community Reinvestment Act can lower — not increase — bank credit availability in some low-income regions, and the OCC should reconsider holding fintechs to the same standards with its new charter.

Several states pledged to compensate for a slowdown in enforcement at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under Mick Mulvaney, but their efforts have been complicated by tight budgets and doubts over whether such initiatives are necessary.