In his first public appearance since being sworn into office, Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould today emphasized the Trump administration’s recent “clarifications and changes to our existing policies” addressing charges of widespread debanking, then addressed the potential risk to bank deposits from stablecoins.
Speaking at a conference sponsored by the digital currency information group CoinDesk, Gould touted the two OCC announcements this week reminding banks of their legal obligations to protect their customers’ financial records even if that information is requested by government; and instructing on what the agency considers politicized or unlawful debanking in licensing applications filed by banks and in banks’ records of performance under the Community Reinvestment Act.
“And of course, we also announced that we will be investigating some of the largest banks to see what has been their pattern of practice, obviously consistent with the president’s [executive order on debanking],” Gould said.
Gould also made several arguments to the crypto-industry-friendly audience to address bankers’ concerns around stablecoins. ABA and state banking associations are seeking changes to the recent GENIUS Act, which created a regulatory framework for payment stablecoin issuers.
“We’re sensitive to concerns that some have raised about deposit flight from the banking system,” Gould said. “We will be designing a regulatory and supervisory framework to address that specifically. … If it looks like deposits are dramatically fleeing the federal banking system, that would be a source of concern at the OCC and I’m sure across other federal banking agencies too, and we would have, I think in large measure, control over whether or not that actually happened.
“If there were going to be any material impact to deposits as a result of stablecoin issuance, I don’t think that would happen overnight,” he added. “Meaning I think we would see it over time, and hopefully our elected officials, or at a minimum, obviously the federal banking agencies, would certainly have views on that and would be monitoring it very closely. [They] would take steps to address it, if indeed that kind of worst-case scenario did materialize.”
