Friday, January 29, 2021

OCC “Pauses” Fair Access Banking Rule

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has “paused publication” of its rule to ensure large banks provide all customers fair access to their services. The OCC proposed the rule in November to “codify more than a decade of OCC guidance that stating that banks should risk assessments of individual customers, rather than making broad-based decisions affecting whole categories or classes of customers, when providing access to services, capital and credit.” The firearms industry was one of those “classes” being denied services. “The first salvo in the gun control fight has begun and the Biden Administration has fired the first shot by improperly interfering in the affairs of the OCC which is an independent agency,” says the National Shooting Sport Foundation’s Senior Vice President and Counsel Larry Keane. For more on this developing story, check out our feature position below.