Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: Should Congress Create a New Federal Charter for Non-Bank Payments Companies?
US Digital Asset Companies Launch Products, Announce Acquisitions - According to recent reports, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recently granted conditional approval of the de novo bank charter...more
Marking a significant milestone in the acceptance of cryptocurrency into the world of traditional finance, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted conditional approval for a national bank charter to...more
Group of Major Global Banks Exploring Stablecoin Focused on G7 Currencies On Oct. 10, a major French multinational bank announced that a group of leading international banks is jointly exploring the potential issuance of...more
In its 2024 decision Cantero v. Bank v. America, N.A., the Supreme Court established the approach courts must follow in determining whether a state consumer financial law prevents or significantly interferes with the exercise...more
On September 10, the Comptroller of the Currency, Jonathan V. Gould, released his remarks to the U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council to review the post-2008 chartering, regulatory and supervisory framework for the...more
According to a recent press release, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin has submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank, First National Digital Currency...more
This third installment in our series of insights on bank charter considerations describes the process for seeking regulatory approval to form or acquire a bank....more
This second installment in a series of insights on bank charter considerations describes the consequences of operating through an insured depository institution charter, including capital requirements, supervision and...more
This is the first in a series of articles in our "So, You Want to Be a Bank?" series. More than 1,000 new banks were formed in the eight years before the Great Recession began in 2008. In comparison, the past 15 years...more
On March 7, 2025, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published Interpretive Letter 1183, which is expected to clarify and streamline national banks’ ability to engage in cryptocurrency activities....more
In the absence of modern charters and licenses, payments companies and other fintechs—both established financial services providers and new market entrants—must generally obtain 50+ money transmitter and possibly other state...more
In this podcast show, we explore with our repeat guest, Professor Dan Awrey of Cornell University Law School, his working paper “Money and Federalism” in which he advocates for the enactment of Federal legislation creating a...more
In January 2024, one of the largest U.S. non-bank merchant acquirers announced that it is pursuing a special-purpose bank charter developed by Georgia. Although the “merchant acquirer limited purpose bank” (MALPB) has been a...more
This is the third installment of our series evaluating the choice between starting a “new” bank through the de novo chartering process or purchasing an existing bank to implement the new business plan. Since we first wrote on...more
One of the beauties of the national banking system is that it allows state-chartered banks to offer uniform credit products across the 50 states without having to worry about state interest rate caps. This concept - rate...more
In Cantero vs. Bank of America, N.A., mortgage borrowers are asking the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse a Second Circuit ruling that federally-chartered banks need not comply with state laws that require the...more
Recently, several financial technology (“Fintech”) organizations have applied for – and been granted – banking charter licenses. For example, in May 2019, Grasshopper was approved for a charter issued by the Office of the...more
I. Introduction - The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) continues along its cautious course of allowing fintech and digital asset firms into the so-called “regulatory perimeter,” not through any special...more
The OCC announced this week that it has conditionally approved applications from Social Finance Inc. (SoFi) to create SoFi Bank, National Association (SoFi Bank, N.A.), as a full service national bank headquartered in...more
The D.C. federal district court hearing the lawsuit filed by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) seeking to block the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency from granting a national bank charter to Figure...more
In This Issue. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted preliminary conditional approval to a third cryptocurrency firm chartering a national trust bank; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)...more
The OCC granted preliminary conditional approval on April 23 to an application to charter Paxos National Trust (Paxos) as an uninsured national trust bank. Paxos, which currently operates as a New York state-charted limited...more
Industrial bank charters continue to gain momentum with approval of Square’s charter; payments and tech companies have become interested in industrial banks lately since the FDIC started approving them after a moratorium from...more
Intel has ousted CEO Robert Swan “as the company faces pressure from an activist investor and grapples with the loss of leadership in producing ultrafast chips.” Swan had been at the helm since January 2019...more
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) has filed a lawsuit in D.C. federal district court to block the OCC from granting a national bank charter to Figure Technologies Inc. According to the complaint, Figure,...more