The OCC has filed a motion to dismiss in a court case filed by the CSBS suggesting that the agency is not authorized to issue the fintech charter it has been drafting to support the growth of fintech companies in the US; the primary argument of the CSBS centers around the issuance of a national charter to fintech companies offering only unbundled banking services with no deposit taking business; in its motion to dismiss the OCC says the CSBS' allegations are speculative given that the OCC has not yet begun taking any applications for a national charter. Source
Regulators and fintech leaders gathered in Washington DC yesterday to discuss the fintech chartering process and some of the biggest challenges...
Many of us in this industry will be glad to see the last of 2016. It has been a difficult...
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The OCC Fintech Charter was formally proposed back in December 2016. Along with many other organizations we responded to their...
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) is suing the OCC to challenge its plans for a fintech charter; central to the case is the OCC's authority to grant special purpose bank charters; CSBS President and CEO John Ryan says, "The OCC's proposed action ignores Congress, seeks to preempt state consumer protection laws, harms markets and innovation, and puts taxpayers at risk of inevitable fintech failures." Source
States have voiced their opposition against the OCC's fintech charter proposal and could be a factor limiting the charter from proceeding; with the charter, fintechs can be granted special purpose national bank status which includes national governance with exemption from state laws; many states have actively integrated regulations and processes for alternative lenders, including state usury laws and regulations for payday lenders; opposing states say the charter would complicate existing state level laws and initiatives. Source
Leaders at the Federal Reserve, the OCC and the CFPB spoke at the Consumer Bankers Association annual conference about the need to be more flexible when applying oversight to bank & fintech partnerships; “We need to do a better job of educating our supervision staff, in some cases, in terms of interpretation of the guidance,” said Dan Quan, who leads the CFPB’s Project Catalyst, as reported by American Banker; they also talked about better coordination to ensure consistency in oversight. Source.
Manatt is one of the leading professional services firms in fintech; in our latest guest post Brian Korn, Neil Faden,...
American Banker reports on the lobbying group called Financial Innovation Now and that some technology giants are meeting individually with government agencies; Amazon met with the OCC starting in the second quarter of 2016 and met again this year; PayPal has also met with OCC officials in several quarters last year. Source
Thomas Curry spoke on the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's fintech charter at LendIt USA; Curry primarily refuted arguments against the OCC's authority for establishing a fintech charter; Curry sited the National Bank Act stating, "To be clear, the National Bank Act does give the OCC the legal authority to grant national bank charters to companies engaged in the business of banking."; the banking charter would encompass all fintech companies engaging in banking activities regardless of whether or not they take banking deposits; the OCC is still evaluating the provisions of the fintech charter following its December 2016 white paper and comment period which ended in January 2017. Source