NEW YORK—Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry on Monday defended the agency’s stance to provide national bank charters to fintechs.
As CUToday.info reported here, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has announced that it will begin considering applications from fintechs to become special purpose national banks. Analysts have stated that this only escalates the importance of CUs devising strategies to address these upstarts.
Curry, in prepared remarks for the LendIt USA 2017 conference in New York, restated that the OCC has the authority to provide charters to fintech firms, despite some stakeholders who say doing so falls outside of the regulator’s purview, shared the Morning Consult it its analysis.
“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,” said Curry, adding that such companies don’t need to take deposits to qualify for a charter. “It is not circumscribed just because a company delivers banking services in new ways with innovative technology.”
The OCC is working to publish a supplemental document to clarify how the regulator will evaluate fintech companies that apply for charters, Curry said. He noted that the agency has received more than 100 comments on its December white paper outlining the plan, Morning Consult reported.
Curry also disputed the notion that the OCC’s plan muddles banking and commerce — two entities required to be walled off from one another under the regulator. “Proposals that would mix banking and commerce are inconsistent with the OCC’s chartering standards and would not be approved,” he said. “I don’t say these things to scare off companies that may be thinking about a national charter. Instead, it is precisely these high standards and the rigorous, value-added supervision by the OCC that makes becoming a national bank attractive for those who meet these expectations,” Morning Consult reported.