The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors challenging the OCC’s authority to grant special purpose national bank charters to companies that provide bank-like services but do not accept deposits (largely FinTech companies.) The D.C. District Court’s decision follows the December 2017 dismissal by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York of a similar lawsuit filed by the New York State Department of Financial Services against the OCC. The court found that CSBS did not have standing to bring the action, as it did not plead an injury in fact and that any of the grounds asserted by the CSBS were speculative and contingent on whether the OCC in fact charters a FinTech company, and that regardless, CSBS failed to identify an imminent injury to a particular member of its organization.  In addition, the court dismissed the action on ripeness grounds, citing, among other reasons, that the OCC still has yet to issue a charter to a FinTech company.

View full text of the court’s decision.