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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

OCC Establishes Office of Innovation

Federal Issues Banking Nonbank Supervision OCC Financial Technology

Federal Issues

On October 26, the OCC announced plans to establish an Office of Innovation (Office) with staff located in Washington, New York, and San Francisco. The OCC simultaneously published a paper titled “Recommendations and Decisions for Implementing a Responsible Innovation Framework,” which provides an overview of the financial services landscape and the OCC’s innovation initiatives. With the expectation to begin operations in first quarter 2017, the new Office will implement certain aspects of the OCC’s responsible innovation framework, including: (i) creating an outreach and technical assistance program; (ii) conducting awareness and training activities for OCC staff, such as implementing an “internal web page that provides OCC staff a ‘one-stop-shop’ to access information on industry trends and innovative products, services, and processes”; (iii) encouraging coordination and facilitation among the regulatory community and industry stakeholders; (iv) conducting industry innovation research; and (v) promoting coordination with other agencies, particularly those with overlapping jurisdictions. Beth Knickerbocker will head the Office as acting Chief Innovation Officer.

The OCC noted that its “assessment of granting a special purpose national bank charter to nonbank financial technology companies, and under what conditions, continues.” Later in 2016, the OCC plans to publish a paper to address issues related to a potential special purpose charter.