Office of the Comptroller of the Currency clarifies filing decision standards and plans to publish all denials

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has clarified how it applies the existing decision standards for filings under 12 CFR 5.13. The guidance reiterates that the agency may approve, conditionally approve or deny a filing, and may return a filing as materially deficient if it lacks enough information for the agency to assess the relevant statutory or regulatory criteria. In practice, incomplete submissions may be returned before any meaningful processing begins. The OCC said initial submissions must include all information required by the filing form, including biographical and financial information for individuals and corporate background and financial reports for entities where applicable. A filing may also be returned if responses to an additional information request still do not give the OCC enough information to assess the filing. For de novo charters, that includes cases where proposed products and services are not defined with sufficient detail, including how they will be operationalized, or where governance, risk management and compliance management arrangements are not fully defined. Approvals will be granted only where the filer meets the relevant statutory, regulatory and policy criteria, with conditions added where needed to support safe and sound operation and compliance. The OCC said it plans to deny filings where there are significant supervisory, Community Reinvestment Act or compliance concerns, where approval would be inconsistent with law, regulation or OCC policy, or where requested information is not provided, and it plans to make all denial decisions public.