OCC

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.

GOP lawmakers say current thresholds subject regional lenders to overly stringent oversight designed for Wall Street giants

The Virginia-based bank had been an example of what can go wrong when banks partner with fintechs. After being released from an OCC enforcement action, Blue Ridge is now focused on operating as a traditional community bank, said CEO Billy Beale.

ICBA argues Bridge's stablecoin model pushes the trust charter beyond its intended fiduciary scope.

The ICBA opposed Coinbase's filing for a trust charter in a public letter as Comptroller Jonathan Gould defended the fintech charter process on Tuesday.

BayFirst Financial, which has reported problems with SBA loans, expects to reach an agreement with its regulators in connection with credit administration and other issues.

As the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency receives a spurt of applications for national trust charters from crypto and payments firms, bank trade groups are urging regulators to ensure proposed activities fit within the statutory limits of the charter and the law.