OCC to remove ‘reputational risk’ from bank inspection guidelines

The move from the national bank regulator came after increased pressure from Republicans

article-image

Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


As President Trump was denouncing the “lawless” Operation Chokepoint 2.0 at the Digital Asset Summit, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency yesterday said it will remove “reputational risks” from its examination manual for supervisors. 

The move from the national bank regulator, which came after increased pressure from Republicans, will, in theory, prevent banks from refusing to serve clients involved in distasteful industries. That includes crypto. 

“The OCC’s examination process has always been rooted in ensuring appropriate risk management processes for bank activities, not casting judgment on how a particular activity may fare with public opinion,” acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney E. Hood said in a Thursday statement

Those in favor of removing “reputational risks” argue that banks are letting politics interfere by blocking customers that may be engaged in unpopular activities, even if those activities pose no actual financial risk to the bank. 

Risk is, of course, still at the center of the examination handbook. But banks will have to prove a potential client truly endangers the institution to justify not accepting them as a client. 

We’d heard from people familiar with the situation that the Trump administration is working on an executive order related to crypto and debanking. Given this move from the OCC, we imagine a ruling from the executive branch is no longer a top priority. We’ll still be keeping an ear out, though, so you just keep an eye on your inbox. 


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

The Stripe-acquired firm has big plans for a streamlined, multi-wallet future

article-image

Both founders of the former crypto lender have now landed in new crypto industry roles

article-image

Bitcoin’s recent peak is a victory lap for curvers left and right

article-image

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo says institutions are eager to get exposure to tokenization

article-image

Trade isn’t war and prosperity isn’t a contest