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
In the News. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) proposed rules to modernize the regulations that implement the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA); the Conference of State Bank Supervisors...more
Introduction - As we approach the final quarter of 2020, we thought it would be helpful to recap one of the significant rule changes of the past few months that is likely to benefit venture capital funds and startup...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 June 25, 2020, the Federal Reserve Board, the OCC, the FDIC, the SEC and the CFTC (collectively, the "Agencies") adopted amendments (the "Amendments") to the regulations implementing section 13 of the Bank Holding Company...more
The Situation: The Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC"), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC"), Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), and Commodity Futures Trading Commission...more
On June 25, 2020, five federal agencies (the “Agencies”) finalized amendments to the rules implementing section 13 of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (the “Volcker Rule”) related to the prohibition on investing,...more
Federal Reserve Revises Framework for Determining Control of a Banking Organization The Federal Reserve has adopted a final rule to simplify and clarify its regulations for determining control of a banking organization for...more
On January 30, 2020, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity...more
On January 30, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Treasury (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Fed”), the Federal Deposit...more
On September 18, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the...more
On August 20, 2019, the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) approved amendments to regulations implementing Section 13 of the Bank...more
On August 20, 2019, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) approved a final rule (the “2019 Final Rule”) to amend the rules implementing Section 13 of the...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
Introduction - This practice note provides an overview of the Volcker Rule, which was enacted in 2010 as Section 619 of the comprehensive Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) and...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
Headlines - ...Guidance Issued on Immediate Implementation of Certain Provisions of the EGRRCPA ...Federal Appeals Court Rules That the FHFA Is Unconstitutionally Structured ...OCC Issues Updated Guidance on...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
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