Law Articles

Return to Law Dictionary Index

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) charters, regulates, and supervises all national banks. It also supervises the federal branches and agencies of foreign banks. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the OCC has four district offices plus an office in London to supervise the international activities of national banks.

The OCC was established in 1863 as a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The OCC is headed by the Comptroller , who is appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a five-year term. The Comptroller also serves as a director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and a director of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation.

The OCC's nationwide staff of examiners conducts on-site reviews of national banks and provides sustained supervision of bank operations. The agency issues rules, legal interpretations, and corporate decisions concerning banking, bank investments, bank community development activities, and other aspects of bank operations.

National bank examiners supervise domestic and international activities of national banks and perform corporate analyses. Examiners analyze a bank's loan and investment portfolios, funds management, capital, earnings, liquidity, sensitivity to market risk, and compliance with consumer banking laws, including the Community Reinvestment Act. They review the bank's internal controls, internal and external audit, and compliance with law. They also evaluate bank management's ability to identify and control risk.

In regulating national banks, the OCC has the power to:

• Examine the banks.
• Approve or deny applications for new charters, branches, capital, or other changes in corporate or banking structure.
• Take supervisory actions against banks that do not comply with laws and regulations or that otherwise engage in unsound banking practices. The agency can remove officers and directors, negotiate agreements to change banking practices, and issue cease and desist orders as well as civil money penalties.
• Issue rules and regulations governing bank investments, lending, and other practices.

The OCC's Objectives

The OCC's activities are predicated on four objectives that support the OCC's mission to ensure a stable and competitive national banking system. The four objectives are:

• To ensure the safety and soundness of the national banking system.
• To foster competition by allowing banks to offer new products and services.
• To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of OCC supervision, including reducing regulatory burden.
• To ensure fair and equal access to financial services for all Americans.

History

In 1861, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase recommended the establishment of a system of federally chartered national banks, each of which would have the power to issue standardized national bank notes based on United States bonds held by the bank. In the National Currency Act of 1863, the administration of the new national banking system was vested in the newly created OCC and its chief administrator, the Comptroller of the Currency.

The law was completely rewritten and re-enacted as the National Bank Act. That act authorized the Comptroller of the Currency to hire a staff of national bank examiners to supervise and periodically examine national banks. The act also gave the Comptroller authority to regulate lending and investment activities of national banks.

One of the reasons Congress created a banking system that issued national currency was to finance the Civil War. Although national banks no longer issue currency, they continue to play a prominent role in the nation's economic life. The OCC regulates and supervises more than 1,900 national banks and 51 federal branches of foreign banks in the U.S., accounting for about $5.8 trillion or more than 67 percent of the total assets of all U.S. commercial banks (as of June 30, 2005).

OCC Funding

The OCC does not receive any appropriations from Congress. Instead, its operations are funded primarily by assessments on national banks. National banks pay for their examinations, and they pay for the OCC's processing of their corporate applications. The OCC also receives revenue from its investment income, primarily from U.S. Treasury securities.

FDIC Insurance

The FDIC insures the deposits in all national banks. An individual is limited to $100,000 in insurance coverage at each bank (including all branches).

Information about the OCC and Banking

You can learn more about what the OCC does (as well as what national banks are doing) by consulting the OCC's Web site (http://www.occ.gov). It contains the OCC's latest news releases, banking issuances, employment information, and publications. The Web site also has much more information, including the Weekly Bulletin of national banks' corporate applications, Community Reinvestment Act evaluations, the OCC's organizational directory, and forms and software.

Biographies of OCC's key leaders are also available online.

By law, the OCC is prohibited from releasing information from its bank safety and soundness examinations to the public. National banks must, however, submit a Report of Condition and Income (call report) four times a year to the FDIC. Call reports contain publicly available financial information about the bank. The FDIC makes these reports available upon request by phone (202-898-6570) and on the Web (http://www.fdic.gov/bank/index.html).

If you have a complaint about a national bank and cannot resolve it with the institution, contact the OCC Customer Assistance Group at 1-800-613-6743 or customer.assistance@occ.treas.gov. Or, visit our Customer Assistance Group online for more information.

Minority Affairs

Recognizing the important role that minority-owned banks play in addressing financial services needs in the minority and low-income communities they serve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is commited to encouraging the success of these banks. More information on minority-owned banks, visit OCC's Minority Affairs page.

OCC Alumni

The OCC has more than 143 years of tradition and rich history. Over the years thousands of OCC alumni have made valuable contributions to America's national banking system and have gone on to make additional contributions in private industry and other branches of the federal government. The OCC values its relationships with all of its alumni. The agency encourages former employees to stay informed and engaged by visiting http://www.occ.gov/alumni.htm.

For more information about the OCC, contact:

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Communications Division
Washington, DC 20219
202-874-4700

Source: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency


Return to Government

Return to Law Dictionary Index