An investigation will continue into the role played by the largest banks in debanking digital asset customers or other legal businesses, the national bank regulator said Monday, commenting on a congressional report on the practice also released that day.
In a statement, Comptroller Jonathon V. Gould said his agency would hold accountable the banks that engaged in the so-called “debanking” for “any unlawful debanking activities it identifies, and to ensure OCC-supervised institutions provide access to financial services based on individualized, objective and risk-based analyses.”
The report issued by the majority staff of the House Financial Services Committee, titled Operation Chokepoint 2.0: Biden’s Debanking of Digital Assets, allegedly confirms, Gould said, “the Biden Administration’s actions discouraged and prevented the institutions within the regulated banking system from engaging with digital assets.”
Gould said the agency would provide transparency around the OCC’s prior requirement for non-supervisory objection before a national bank engaged in digital asset activities under its Interpretive Letter 1179 (published in 2021). That letter, which outlined a bank’s authority engage in certain crypto activities, among other things, has since been rescinded. Gould said the OCC recently published each formal bank request submitted and the agency’s response.
“Additionally, the OCC has removed references to reputation risk in its handbooks and guidance documents and, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), issued a proposal to codify the elimination of reputation risk from its supervisory programs. These actions eliminate one of the tools previously used by regulators to drive debanking,” Gould claimed.
Comptroller Issues Statement on Congressional Debanking Report
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