Judge Dismisses NY’s Suit Over OCC FinTech Charters

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit on December 12th by the State of New York as speculative regarding the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) proposed FinTech charter system. The case dismissal comes just a few weeks after a permanent head, Joseph Otting, was confirmed at the OCC.

Following the release of a draft licensing manual for national FinTech charters in the spring, New York and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) each filed suit to block implementation of the special purpose bank charter system intended to bring FinTech companies away from state rule and under federal supervision. CSBS even developed its own alternative to the OCC’s proposal, dubbed Vision 2020.

The federal judge found that since the OCC had yet to determine whether or not it would issue the charters, no alleged injury had taken place on the part of New York. The suit was therefore speculative, and the state lacked the standing requisite to continue.

Comptroller Otting has yet to announce whether or not the OCC will actually begin accepting applications for FinTech charters. His predecessor, Acting Comptroller Keith Noreika, commented in September that the charters were still in an “exploratory phase.”