Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

It seems the OCC does not believe the GENIUS Act creates a new charter type, contrary to speculation late last year. They would, however, be pleased to offer applicants charters they already have. In the preamble to its proposed GENIUS Act rule, the OCC adopts a narrower reading than it could have of the savings clause that follows the Act's list of activities permitted to a stablecoin issuer. The savings clause says that nothing in the activities provision "shall limit a permitted payment stablecoin issuer from engaging in payment stablecoin activities or digital asset service provider...

One thing in the OCC's GENIUS Act proposed rule that I can wholeheartedly endorse: "The OCC proposes to use the term 'Federal Reserve' in place of 'Board' for greater clarity because the proposed rule refers separately to boards of directors in various sections." This practice should be adopted across the bank regulatory ecosystem. The prevailing practice of using "the Board" on second reference to the Federal Reserve decreases the accessibility of regulatory documents and increases cognitive load for anyone who has to read them -- even us experts.

Nobody likes Vullo v. OCC, New York's challenge to the nondepository national fintech charter half a decade ago. For most people in the industry, the case stands for the idea that the OCC can’t charter national banks that don’t take deposits, unless the bank is restricted to trust company activities. The OCC dislikes this for a few reasons, but mostly because it isn’t true. The lower court’s decision against the OCC was reversed on procedural grounds, and the case went away after the applicant at issue applied for deposit insurance. Had the lower court’s substantive reasoning been put to the...

“The OCC discovered that the unauthorized access to a number of its executives’ and employees’ emails included highly sensitive information relating to the financial condition of federally regulated financial institutions used in its examinations and supervisory oversight processes.” OCC Notifies Congress of Incident Involving Email System occ.gov

Financial services trade associations have been a core focus of our practice for over half a century. The firm has served as outside counsel to over a dozen leading industry trade associations, as well as numerous issue-focused coalitions. Several of the firm's senior lawyers worked in-house at trade associations prior to joining the firm. We provide trade associations with legal counsel on federal banking, consumer finance, and housing policy matters. Our work includes drafting and editing comment letters to regulators such as the OCC, Federal Reserve, CFPB, FDIC, Treasury, FHFA, and HUD, as...

Nancy Worth specializes in matters involving the federal financial regulatory agencies, with a particular focus on federal consumer law and fair lending. She advises on supervision and compliance matters relating to mortgages, credit cards, and other lending products, and on examination guidance, applications, reports of examination, enforcement actions, and consumer complaints. Her practice extends to commenting on agency review of legislation and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulations. Nancy previously served as Special Counsel for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency...