Acting Deputy Director Leonard Chanin formerly was a deputy general counsel at the Cincinnati bank that is now in the bureau's crosshairs for allegedly opening unauthorized accounts.
The OCC and FDIC’s proposal for modernizing the community reinvestment law would give banks below $500 million of assets the option to keep the current regime. But bankers and industry representatives say that threshold should be higher.
A decision by regulators on how to move forward with the controversial charter could have broad implications for fintech firms that want to enter the banking system.
State and federal officials committed to providing “appropriate regulatory assistance” to banks whose customers may be hurt by the coronavirus outbreak and said prudent measures would not be subject to criticism by examiners.
Sen. Mark Warner led a group of Democratic senators in calling on bank, credit union and GSE regulators to give detailed instructions on helping consumer and commercial borrowers hurt by the COVID-19 outbreak.
The agencies recommend steps banks should take to proactively prevent disruption of operations, minimize contact between staff and customers, and plan for how affected employees reenter the workplace, among other things.
Most states have some kind of pricing limit on consumer loans. But proposals for a national usury law divide even Democrats, some of whom are concerned about restricting credit.
The agency says it is not cutting its workforce but that the new strategy is necessary because it has an unusually high number of workers near retirement age.
The banking regulators have announced that they are postponing next week’s National Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference because of growing health concerns about the virus outbreak.
