Washington, DC January 13, 2017 – The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) signaled that it is advancing on its proposal to explore the issuance of limited-purpose bank charters to financial technology (“fintech”) firms engaged in banking. On December 2nd, the OCC [announced] that it was seeking comments on whether it should grant “special purpose” national charters, and more recently issued a policy paper titled “Exploring Special Purpose National Bank Charters for Fintech Companies” that fully details the OCC’s concept. The process for obtaining this special charter would generally follow the process for a full-service national bank with additional special requirements designed to address the fintech companies. The new fintech charter would create a bank organized under the federal law, which would allow for the preemption state-licensing requirements; though certain state anti-discrimination and fair-lending laws may still apply.
However, recently the OCC received a letter from Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., opposing the creation of the special fintech charters claiming that such action should be reserved for Congress, not the OCC.
NAFSA will be monitoring this issue closely and provide members updates on the progression of this [issue].
