Overview
The OCC is a US federal banking regulator and a primary payment-stablecoin regulator under the GENIUS Act, issuing charters and proposed implementing rules for permitted payment stablecoin issuers.
Recent Developments
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2026-10-21: Final GENIUS Act rule (NR 2026-92)—issuer yield ban; case-by-case review of third-party rewards (removed automatic presumption); effective 18 Jan 2027; BSA/AML rules still forthcoming (2026-10-21-occ-final-rule-genius-act-stablecoins, genius-act, stablecoin)
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2026-10-08: $350M civil money penalty and cease-and-desist against american-express National Bank for aml-cft deficiencies; coordinated with Federal Reserve parent-company order (2026-10-08-occ-amex-350m-aml-enforcement)
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2026-08-14: Preliminary conditional approval for world-liberty-financial Trust Company (USD1 stablecoin issuer) — $20M capital, open by Feb 2028; political controversy over Trump ties (2026-08-14-world-liberty-occ-trust-bank-charter, 2026-08-14-world-liberty-coindesk-occ)
Preliminary conditional approval — not final operating charter.
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2026-07-23: Conditional approval for upstart / upstart-bank de novo national bank (2026-07-24-upstart-occ-conditional-bank-charter)
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2026-07-21: Denies wise national trust bank application (Corporate Decision #1381) — first public denial in current fintech charter wave (2026-07-24-wise-occ-denial-primary)
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2026-05: Conditional national bank charter approval for augustus (final pending); Series B follows in July (augustus-180m-stablecoin-clearing-bank)
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2026-07-18: Among agencies that missed coordinated final GENIUS Act rules by statutory deadline (2026-07-18-genius-act-clearingpost-miss)
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2026-07-10: Final national trust bank approval for Circle