On January 14, 2021, Brian Brooks, Comptroller of the Currency, issued a final rule establishing standards that a bank must follow in fulfilling its obligation to provide fair access to financial services. The final rule is effective on April 1, 2021. The final rule applies to banks with $100 billion or more in total assets. The OCC interprets “fair access to financial services” to recognize its broad responsibility to ensure that banks make decisions about […]
Category: OCC
TEMPORARY ASSET THRESHOLDS
On December 2, 2020 the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively the Agencies) published an interim final regulation (IFR) to mitigate temporary transition costs on banking organizations related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID event), by issuing an interim final rule to permit national banks, savings associations, state banks, bank holding companies, savings and loan holding companies, and U.S. branches and […]
INTERAGENCY STATEMENT – CEASE ORIGINATION OF LIBOR-BASED CONTRACTS
On November 30, 2020, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively, the agencies) issued a statement to encourage banks to cease entering into new contracts that use USD LIBOR as a reference rate as soon as practicable and in any event by December 31, 2021, in order to facilitate an orderly—and safe and sound— LIBOR transition.
UNUSUAL OCC FAIR ACCESS PROPOSAL ON FAST TRACK
On November 20, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that ensures that larger national banks and Federal savings associations offer and provide fair access to financial services. This is a most unusual proposal What The NPRM: Is a response to campaigns by political advocates who seek to achieve policy objectives by pressuring banks to stop providing financial services to customers (engaged in a lawful […]
NEXT PIECE OF OCC CRA RULES PUBLISHED
On November 24, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the Community Reinvestment Act’s (CRA) general performance standards. The OCC published a final rule on May 20, 2020, with an October 1, 2020 effective date, to strengthen and modernize the agency’s regulations under the CRA to encourage banks to engage in more activities to serve the needs of their communities, particularly low- and moderate-income and other […]