Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is an independent bureau of the US Department of the Treasury that charters, regulates and supervises national banks, federal savings associations and the federal branches and agencies of foreign banks. National banks, which carry "National Association" or "N.A." in their legal names, include most of the largest US lenders, so the OCC oversees a large share of the country's banking assets.

The agency is led by the Comptroller of the Currency, who is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for a five-year term. The title is shared with other public officials who audit or control spending, described under comptroller, but the OCC is a bank supervisor, not a government auditor. It is one of three federal banking regulators, alongside the Federal Reserve and the FDIC.

In the United States, a bank can choose to be licensed by a state or by the federal government. The OCC is the federal licensing office and the inspector rolled into one. It decides who may open a national bank, writes many of the rules those banks must follow and sends examiners to check their books, controls and risk-taking on a regular basis.

Think of it as a building inspector who issued the original permit and keeps returning to check the wiring. If the inspector finds serious problems, it can order repairs, impose fines or, in extreme cases, close the building. The goal is to keep banks safe and sound and to make sure they treat customers fairly.

The OCC was created by the National Currency Act of 1863, later revised as the National Bank Act of 1864, during the American Civil War. Before then, banking was chartered almost entirely by states, and thousands of different banknotes circulated. Congress set up a system of national banks that issued a uniform currency backed by US government bonds, and the OCC was established to charter and supervise them. This created the "dual banking system" of state and federal charters that still exists. The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 moved supervision of federal savings associations, or thrifts, to the OCC when it abolished the Office of Thrift Supervision.

• Chartering. The OCC grants and approves changes to national bank charters, including mergers, conversions and new branches, and can grant limited-purpose charters such as national trust banks.
• Supervision. Teams of national bank examiners review capital, asset quality, management, earnings, liquidity and sensitivity to market risk. The largest banks have examiners on site year-round.
• Rulemaking. The OCC issues regulations and interpretive letters that define what activities are permissible for national banks.
• Compliance. It checks adherence to the Bank Secrecy Act, consumer protection laws and the Community Reinvestment Act.

The OCC is funded mainly by assessments paid by the banks it supervises rather than by congressional appropriations. The Comptroller also serves on the board of the FDIC.

When examiners find unsafe practices or legal violations, the OCC can issue formal agreements, cease-and-desist orders, civil money penalties and removal orders against bank officers. Many cases end in a consent order, in which the bank agrees to remedial steps without admitting or denying the findings. Enforcement actions are published on the OCC's website. In serious cases, the OCC can appoint a receiver for a failed national bank, usually the FDIC.

The OCC has issued a series of statements on how national banks may engage with digital assets:

• 2020 to early 2021. Under Acting Comptroller Brian Brooks, interpretive letters confirmed that national banks may provide crypto custody services (Interpretive Letter 1170, July 2020), may hold deposits that serve as reserves for stablecoins (Letter 1172, September 2020) and may act as nodes on blockchain networks and use stablecoins in payment activities (Letter 1174, January 2021). In January 2021 the OCC also conditionally approved Anchorage Digital's conversion into a national trust bank.
• November 2021. Interpretive Letter 1179 added a condition: a bank had to show it could manage the risks and obtain the OCC's written non-objection before starting these activities.
• 2023. The OCC joined the Federal Reserve and the FDIC in public statements warning banks about crypto-asset risks, which many in the industry read as discouraging such business.
• 2025. In March 2025, Interpretive Letter 1183 withdrew the non-objection requirement and reaffirmed the earlier letters, and the 2023 joint statements were later withdrawn. The GENIUS Act, signed in July 2025, gave the OCC a role in licensing and supervising certain non-bank issuers of payment stablecoins.

The OCC's position on crypto has therefore shifted with leadership and politics, and banks continue to need sound risk management for any digital-asset activity.

• Office of the Comptroller of the Currency