Continuing Acting Comptroller Brooks’ efforts to enhance innovation at national banks and federal savings associations, the agency has now authorized these institutions to hold reserves associated with certain stablecoin offerings. This reflects a general trend in recent OCC actions allowing national banks and federal thrifts to engage in novel activities in which funds placed with the bank or an affiliate might not be intermediated as is the case in traditional banking organizations. Instead, these banks serve as custodians of funds backing other exposures, as payment-system windows for non-traditional customers, or in other ways that leverage the unique benefits of a banking charter with non-traditional activities often under uncertain prudential standards and otherwise exposed to risks not necessarily captured in the limits placed on the bank.
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