The OCC to set up new office to probe fintech revolution

FinTech | October 31, 2016 By:

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced plans to establish a department tasked solely with probing “responsible innovation” in the financial technology sector.

In a report titled, “Recommendations and Decisions for Implementing a Responsible Innovation Framework”, the OCC has provided a summary of the financial services landscape and its innovation initiatives, along with the approved recommendations for the OCC’s Framework for responsible innovation, including the Office of Innovation and other key elements.

“Today, fintechs engage in the traditional banking functions of consumer lending, payments, wealth management, and settlements. Fintechs also are leveraging new technologies and processes, such as cloud computing, application programming interfaces, distributed ledgers, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics,” the report said.

The OCC has sought to present an active voice amidst the shifting regulatory landscape for the technology in the US, calling last year for a “balanced” approach to bitcoin regulation. At the same time, the OCC included the tech in a banking risk assessment released in July.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a regulator of the U.S. banking system.