Office of the Comptroller of the Currency outlines plans to investigate debanking, remove reputation risk from supervision and repropose Basel III capital rules

In testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Comptroller Jonathan V. Gould set out the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) supervisory and policy priorities, centred on a return to risk-based oversight, actions to address alleged debanking and a wider regulatory reform agenda. On access to banking services, the OCC is implementing President Trump’s Executive Order on Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans by reviewing the activities of the largest national banks and investigating complaints of alleged debanking, alongside a proposed rule to eliminate “reputation risk” from supervision. Supervision is to place greater weight on examiner judgment and focus on issues that materially affect safety and soundness, with reforms to the Matters Requiring Attention process, clarified enforcement standards and more proportionate and predictable supervisory tools. The agenda also includes interagency work to repropose Basel III capital rulemaking, evaluating improvements to the Community Reinvestment Act framework, modernising Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering (BSA/AML) requirements and providing targeted burden relief for community institutions, while advancing innovation through a proposal to implement the GENIUS Act for payment stablecoins, welcoming bank charter applications and engaging OCC-supervised banks on the use of technologies such as AI.