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OCC representative unveils report proposing three "financial health vital signs" for consumers
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Summary
An OCC representative announced an OCC report proposing three simple consumer-level financial health metrics — positive cash flow, a liquidity buffer and on‑time payments/prime credit score — and urged industry collaboration on standards and trust. The report will be available at occ.gov.
An unidentified representative from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said the agency will release a report proposing a small set of consumer-level "financial health vital signs" and urged banks, fintechs and consumer advocates to help refine the measures.
"What gets measured gets done," the speaker said, arguing that current fintech and bank metrics — monthly active users, transaction volume, customer‑acquisition cost and similar business indicators — focus on firms rather than the financial health of individuals. "Nowhere in this is financial health," the speaker said.
The report, part of the OCC's Community Development Insights series and scheduled for release later the same day, lays out a starting point of three practical metrics that banks already have data to compute: positive cash flow, a liquidity buffer and on‑time payments or a prime credit score. "We're talking we identify 3 as a starting point," the speaker said, adding this is meant to be a step toward operational measures rather than a final solution.
The speaker said the OCC's approach combined research and stakeholder engagement with consumer advocates, banks and fintechs. The transcript names staff leads involved in the project; the speaker said the OCC "did our homework" and emphasized that the measures should be simple, objective and administrable without specialized tools.
On future data capabilities, the speaker referenced a forthcoming permissioning mechanism (transcribed as "10 33") that could broaden data access across platforms but stressed that the proposed three metrics can be used immediately because consumer banks already hold the required information.
Trust and standards were presented as prerequisites for adoption. Quoting remarks by a colleague, the speaker said two things "jumped out" in recent remarks: "trust and standards." To illustrate the role of standards, the speaker referenced the historical creation of the kilogram and praised technical standard‑setting organizations such as ISO for their impartial approach.
The OCC representative closed by asking for collaboration and feedback from industry and advocates: "Are these gonna work? Are they accurate or not? And if they're not, what's better?" The report and related materials are available on occ.gov, the speaker said.
The OCC did not provide an implementation timeline, formal regulatory requirement, or detailed algorithms for computing the proposed metrics during the talk. The speaker framed the proposal as a research and engagement starting point and invited stakeholders to contribute improvements that could be adopted into later iterations.
The talk concluded with a call for collective action and a thank you to attendees.
