Get your tickets to the 2024 Coin Center Annual Dinner 

The CSBS is suing the OCC to stop the new special purpose national bank charter for fintech firms.

In a press release, CSBS (the Conference of State Bank Supervisors) makes some alarming claims, suggesting the OCC is doomed to fall asleep at the switch, allow firms to fail, and leave fintech customers and US taxpayers as hapless victims:

The OCC’s proposed action … harms markets and innovation, and puts taxpayers at risk of inevitable fintech failures. This is a dangerous combination and one the court should decisively halt

That sounds fantastical. The OCC is a heavy duty regulator with a century-plus-long track record; it’s not as if becoming a national bank is some easy feat, or that compliance costs are trivial. Also, as we and several others have stressed in comments throughout the OCC’s (very transparent and careful) responsible innovation proceeding, applying the patchwork of state-by-state licensing and oversight to global-by-default internet businesses is extremely costly. Any other claims aside, it’s hard to imagine how providing a unified federal alternative could be bad for innovation and competition.

Moreover, if the states are doing such a great job at promoting innovation and protecting consumers, then why be so defensive here? The OCC’s charter merely provides a new alternative route to becoming a regulated fintech company; companies are free to continue seeking licensing and oversight from the states if they so choose.

Regardless of who is ultimately in the right here, this could become a turf war between powerful regulators with consumers and companies playing the part of unwitting pawns. This is not the sort of unified approach to regulating innovators that is likely to make the U.S. a technological leader. The Financial Conduct Authority in the UK and the Monetary Authority of Singapore may increasingly become the safest ports in a growing storm.