Bank Regulatory

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On August 5, the SOLO Network announced a FinCEN-observed bank reliance pilot developed in coordination with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The pilot represents the first coordinated engagement across all four agencies to operationalize bank reliance at scale and could significantly reshape how financial institutions approach customer due diligence and identity verification.

On July 31, the OCC and FDIC jointly issued a proposed rule to significantly amend their existing Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations that have been in place since 1995.  While the proposal would retain key elements of the regulatory framework, it seeks to better align the regulations with CRA’s statutory mandate of encouraging banks to meet the credit needs of their communities by making “targeted” substantive, technical, and process-oriented changes and narrowing the scope of the rules.  Toward that end, the proposal focuses on the lending test, ensures that community development grants reach the communities they are intended to benefit, and narrows the range of retail banking services the agencies consider for CRA credit by excluding deposit services.  The proposed rule also seeks to provide greater clarity on how a bank receives CRA consideration and to reduce burden on banks (particularly community banks). Notably, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) did not join the proposal.

On June 16, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a cease and desist order against United Texas Bank, N.A. citing deficiencies in its Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering (BSA/AML) compliance program that resulted in violations of law or regulation. The action is notable not only for its substance, but for its context. The order was issued as a condition of the bank’s conversion to a national bank charter supervised by the OCC.

Earlier this year, on May 18, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board published its second notice of proposed rulemaking implementing the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act). The proposal sets operating standards for permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs) that are subsidiaries of federally insured credit unions and updates the NCUA’s share insurance and capital rules.

The Road to Housing Act takes aim at one of the most persistent pain points in community banking: the risk that everyday deposit relationships — particularly those involving custodial arrangements and reciprocal deposit networks — get swept into the regulatory definition of “brokered deposits.” Sections 901 and 902 of the legislation offer meaningful, targeted relief, providing both structural clarity for institutions that rely on payment services arrangements and expanded safe harbors for reciprocal deposit programs. For community banks, these changes could meaningfully expand deposit stability without triggering the heightened regulatory scrutiny that brokered deposit classification brings.

On June 12, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an updated fact sheet on § 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act, replacing its December 2020 version. The update clarifies the permissibility of real-time information sharing, expands guidance on fraud-related sharing, and addresses several questions about who can participate and how information can be used.

On June 11, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released a notice and request for comment on proposed weekly and quarterly reporting forms and instructions for permitted payment stablecoin issuers and foreign payment stablecoin issuers subject to the OCC’s supervision as part of a new information collection required under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996. The proposal marks a significant next step in the OCC’s implementation of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act), which was enacted on July 18, 2025, and establishes a comprehensive federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoin activities.

On May 12, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a significant interpretive letter confirming that Fidelity Digital Assets, National Association (the recently converted national trust bank formerly known as Fidelity Digital Assets Service, LLC) is not required to hold state money transmitter licenses to conduct its federally authorized activities. The OCC concluded that the National Bank Act preempts any state money transmitter licensing requirement as applied to a national bank.

Federal regulators recently took two coordinated steps that significantly shift expectations for how lenders and banks treat non‑work authorized individuals and their employers. On June 5, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued a formal statement on how immigration status should factor into ability‑to‑repay determinations under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and Regulation Z. On the same day, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), jointly with the federal banking agencies and in coordination with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), released a detailed advisory on fraud, payroll schemes, and money laundering risks associated with the unlawful employment of non-work authorized persons, including specific guidance regarding the use of Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) and Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs).