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U.S. Bank Agency Cuts 'Reputational Risk' From Exams After Crypto Sector Cites Issues
The crypto industry argued that U.S. regulators used the idea of risks to banks' reputation to pressure them to reject digital assets clients, and the OCC has answered.
U.S. national banks have been told by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that they'll no longer have to answer how controversial customers might damage their reputations — a point that had been criticized by crypto companies and insiders arguing that it contributed to them being debanked.
The OCC is removing that factor from its supervision handbook, the agency said in a Thursday statement.
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“The OCC’s examination process has always been rooted in ensuring appropriate risk management processes for bank activities, not casting judgment on how a particular activity may fare with public opinion,” said Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney Hood.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell had made a similar commitment in a congressional hearing last month that the Fed would cut that category of scrutiny from its internal supervision manuals.
The OCC has been making moves to ease the compliance path for banks engaging in crypto business. It recently erased earlier guidance that had called for banks to get pre-approval in writing from the agency if they wanted to handle digital assets business lines.
The banking regulator may soon have its permanent chief, with President Donald Trump's nominee, Jonathan Gould, facing a Senate confirmation hearing next week. The head of the OCC tends to be able to act more quickly and decisively than other financial regulators, because the person operates as the sole authority without a commission or board to seek approval from.
Jesse Hamilton
Jesse Hamilton is CoinDesk's deputy managing editor on the Global Policy and Regulation team, based in Washington, D.C. Before joining CoinDesk in 2022, he worked for more than a decade covering Wall Street regulation at Bloomberg News and Businessweek, writing about the early whisperings among federal agencies trying to decide what to do about crypto. He’s won several national honors in his reporting career, including from his time as a war correspondent in Iraq and as a police reporter for newspapers. Jesse is a graduate of Western Washington University, where he studied journalism and history. He has no crypto holdings.
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Crypto Industry Asks President Trump to Stop JPMorgan’s 'Punitive Tax' on Data Access
A coalition of fintech and crypto trade groups is urging the White House to defend open banking and stop JPMorgan from charging fees to access customer data.
What to know:
- Ten major fintech and crypto trade associations have urged President Trump to stop big banks from imposing fees that could hinder innovation and competition.
- JPMorgan's plan to charge for access to consumer banking data may debank millions and threaten the adoption of stablecoins and self-custody wallets.
- The CFPB's open banking rule, which mandates free consumer access to bank data, is under threat as banks have sued to block it, and the CFPB has requested its vacatur.
