Becoming or owning an industrial loan company (or ILC)—the elusive "nonbank bank" option, as Congress coined the term in 1987— still has an allure for financial services providers that want to (1) lend on a national scale...more
An industrial bank or industrial loan company (each, an ILC) charter can be an attractive option for a financial technology company (fintech) or other company seeking to enter the banking space. In June 2024, the Federal...more
The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG), together with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), released a much-anticipated Report on...more
Court Rules that Debt Collector Violated FDCPA with Communication to Dunning Vendor - A federal appellate court has recently ruled that a debt collector violated certain privacy requirements under the federal Fair Debt...more
On July 31, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) approved the national bank charter application of Varo Bank, N.A., a wholly-owned subsidiary of fintech Varo Money, Inc. The approved application is for a...more
As we reported, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks has previewed the OCC’s plans to introduce another special purpose national bank charter that would give payment companies a nationwide servicing platform and...more
The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) has filed its opening brief with the Second Circuit in the OCC’s appeal from the district court’s final judgment in DFS’s lawsuit challenging the OCC’s issuance of special...more
On March 17, the FDIC released for public comment a proposed rule for industrial banks and industrial loan companies (together, “ILCs”) and their parent companies and signaled that it is considering two pending ILC...more
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board) issued a much-anticipated final rule (Final Rule) on January 30 to amend and codify—in certain respects, for the first time—its framework for making...more
Investors that own large stakes in a bank can trigger the Federal Reserve’s oversight if they have “controlling influence” over the bank. ...more
The Federal Reserve Board has published in the Federal Register a notice of proposed rulemaking with request for comment on a proposal to simplify and increase transparency of its rules for determining control of a banking...more
Many have believed that the national bank “fintech charter” is an ideal solution to providing marketplace consumer loans on a 50-state basis. ...more
BROKER-DEALER - OCIE Issues Risk Alert on Investment Adviser and Broker-Dealer Compliance Issues Related to Regulation S-P - On April 16, the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) of the Securities...more
In a press release, the organizers of Varo Bank, N.A. announced they have been granted preliminary approval by the OCC of their application to form a de novo national bank, which they claim “put[s] Varo on track to become the...more
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced on July 31 that it will begin accepting applications for special purpose national bank charters from nondepository financial technology companies (fintechs) that are...more
On July 31, 2018 the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced that, effective immediately, it is now accepting national bank charter applications from nondepository financial technology (fintech) companies...more
On November 8, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith A. Noreika explored how the separation of banking and commerce evolved in the United States and called for a broader discussion of whether the separation continues to...more
Some bankers view the rapid rise of “fintech” as an existential threat to traditional banks, especially community banks. But while fintech surely is changing financial services, it is also creating new opportunities for...more
In remarks last week at Georgetown University’s Institute of International Economic Law’s Fintech Week event, Acting OCC Comptroller Keith Noreika provided the “latest on our thinking regarding a charter for fintech companies...more
An ILC, or industrial loan company, is a form of bank that can be chartered in Utah, Nevada, and a few other states. ILCs are insured by the FDIC and have most traditional banking powers, but they cannot hold corporate...more
A topic of increasing interest in recent months and weeks has been whether and if fintech companies would seek to obtain a bank charter of some sort. The recent decisions by Social Finance Inc. (SoFi) and Square, Inc. to...more
On December 2, 2016, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry announced that the OCC will move forward with considering granting federal charters—under the OCC’s existing authorities—to financial technology companies. ...more
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the OCC) plans to consider applications from companies engaged in financial technology—or FinTech—activities to operate through a national bank charter and has released a paper...more