Agency official outlines OCC priorities: fair‑banking review, Basel III reproposal, CRA and AML modernization, and support for stablecoins and charters
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Summary
Testifying to a congressional committee, an OCC official said the agency is implementing the president's executive order on fair banking, investigating alleged 'debanking,' reproposing Basel III capital rules, evaluating Community Reinvestment Act improvements, advancing BSA/AML modernization, and seeking comments on implementing the 'Genius Act' for stablecoins.
An agency official told a congressional committee the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will pursue several regulatory priorities, including steps to address alleged 'debanking,' repropose Basel III capital rules, and modernize anti‑money‑laundering rules.
"We are implementing president Trump's executive order on guaranteeing fair banking for all Americans by, among other things, reviewing the activities of the largest national banks and investigating complaints of alleged debanking," the official said, and added that the OCC has "proposed a rule to eliminate reputation risk from supervision," describing reputation‑based supervision as a cause of unequal access.
The official said the OCC is working with interagency partners to repropose the Basel III capital rulemaking and is "evaluating opportunities to improve the Community Reinvestment Act framework." They also said the agency is "advancing BSA AML modernization and targeted burden relief for community institutions." The witness characterized these actions as intended to make the regulatory architecture "simpler, stronger, and more accountable."
On innovation, the official highlighted the "Genius Act" as Congress's effort to advance payments and stablecoins and said the OCC looks forward to comments on its proposal to implement that law. The witness also said the OCC "welcomes applicants for bank charters" and will evaluate applications "case by case and in an even handed fashion" consistent with statutory factors and supervisory standards. The official added that the OCC will encourage banks to embrace technologies, including artificial intelligence, in ways available to all banks rather than a privileged few.
All regulatory initiatives described in the testimony were presented as proposals or ongoing evaluations; the testimony did not record formal rule finalizations, specific timelines for implementation, or responses from other agencies or external stakeholders during this session.