WASHINGTON — Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian P. Brooks has responded to a new set of recommendations from the CFPB by claiming that if any national charters are to be issued to fintechs it will be done by his agency.
As CUToday.info reported here, a CFPB task force has issued more than 100 recommendations, including a recommendation related to credit unions and underserved fields of membership.
But among the other recommendations in the report is an endorsement for the need for federal charters for fintechs.
“The thoughtful report by the task force created by the CFPB concludes that the nation needs federal charters for fintechs to effectively, efficiently, and safely serve the financial needs of consumers across the nation under a single uniform set of rules,” said Brooks in a statement. “We absolutely agree with that conclusion.
‘Two Cops on the Beat’
“Under the law, the agency that grants national charters to companies engaged in lending, payments, or deposit-taking is the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which has the responsibility for prudential supervision to ensure these chartered institutions operate in a safe, sound, and fair manner,” Brooks continued. “In its wisdom, Congress in the Dodd-Frank Act separated chartering and prudential supervision from consumer protection enforcement, assigning chartering authority to the OCC and specific consumer protection enforcement authority to the CFPB.”
Brooks went on to say in his statement, “The additional protections implemented following the last financial crisis put two cops on the beat and separated those responsibilities so neither would be compromised in service to the other. That dynamic should be preserved so that the CFPB continues to enforce compliance with enumerated financial consumer protection laws for the financial companies designated by the Dodd-Frank Act, while at the same time avoiding the creation of a prudential supervision gap that could lead to serious safety and soundness risks.”