An Office of Financial Technology will be established in early 2023 by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to provide strategic leadership, vision, and perspective for the OCC’s financial technology activities and related supervision, the agency said.
“Financial technology is changing rapidly and bank-fintech partnerships are likely to continue growing in number and complexity. To ensure that the federal banking system is safe, sound, and fair today and well into the future, we need to have a deep understanding of financial technology and the financial technology landscape,” Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael J. Hsu said in a statement with Thursday’s release. “The establishment of this office will enable us to be more agile and to promote responsible innovation, consistent with our mission.”
The OCC said the new office will build on and incorporate the agency’s Office of Innovation, established in 2016 to coordinate agency efforts to support responsible financial innovation. It will be led a by a Chief Financial Technology Officer, who will be a Deputy Comptroller reporting to the Senior Deputy Comptroller for Bank Supervision Policy, it said.