The American Fintech Council (AFC) has filed remark letters with the Workplace of the Comptroller of the Foreign money (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Company (FDIC) backing proposed rule adjustments that might widen the cases below which banks and fintech corporations can proportion confidential supervisory news (CSI). The letters reply to Notices of Proposed Rulemaking from each companies and construct on previous AFC advocacy submitted collectively with the Impartial Financial institution for Cooperatives Alliance to the OCC, FDIC and Federal Reserve in January 2026.
At its core, the AFC’s place is that the prevailing CSI framework creates friction at precisely the incorrect second in a bank-fintech courting: prior to a proper partnership is established. Below present laws, establishments inspecting potential companions, senior hires or acquisition goals face constraints that prohibit what supervisory context can also be shared and with whom. The AFC argues that this successfully forces events right into a roundabout information-exchange procedure it describes as “enjoying a sport of phone,” expanding due diligence chance somewhat than lowering it.
What the AFC is looking for
The council is urgent each companies on 3 similar fronts. First, it needs the business-purpose disclosure authority that already allows some CSI sharing to be prolonged around the complete existence cycle of third-party relationships, together with right through preliminary pre-contractual due diligence. This may permit FDIC-examined carrier suppliers to divulge details about their very own supervisory status to potential financial institution companions, enabling knowledgeable chance checks prior to any contract is signed.
2nd, in its OCC submission, the AFC particularly requires CSI sharing to be approved right through merger and acquisition critiques and right through pre-engagement checks of senior management applicants, protecting a spread of company occasions the place supervisory historical past is without delay subject material to decision-making.
3rd, the AFC advocates for a structured course wherein qualifying entities, together with industry associations and unbiased analysis organisations, may just obtain institution-specific CSI only to behavior aggregated research. The ensuing aggregated findings can be publishable, supporting regulatory analysis and coverage advocacy with out exposing particular person establishment knowledge.
On compliance safeguards, the AFC argues that protective delicate supervisory knowledge does no longer require recreating the prior-approval burdens found in previous frameworks. It recommends permitting confidentiality provisions to be embedded in present business agreements somewhat than developing new standalone approval processes, and opposes inflexible necessities corresponding to home incorporation mandates, granular workforce get entry to logs or transaction-level disclosures.
Phil Goldfeder, leader govt of the AFC, mentioned a contemporary regulatory framework must permit establishments to interchange important supervisory context on the earliest levels of collaboration, sponsored via rigorous compliance safeguards. Ian Moloney, the AFC’s leader coverage officer, mentioned modernising the framework would enhance potency and efficacy within the exam procedure for all events.
Regulatory context
The proposed OCC and FDIC rulemakings sit down inside a broader effort via US prudential regulators to replace the criminal infrastructure round bank-fintech partnerships. That effort has amassed tempo following a number of high-profile partnership disasters within the banking-as-a-service section, the place regulators discovered that banks had inadequate visibility into their fintech companions’ chance profiles prior to and right through the connection.
The CSI reform proposed right here works the opposite facet of that downside: no longer via including oversight after a partnership is shaped, however via bettering the tips to be had to either side prior to they dedicate. For fintech corporations that dangle their very own exam historical past from a prudential regulator, the facility to divulge that report to potential financial institution companions may just grow to be a significant differentiator in a marketplace the place banks are more and more wary about onboarding new era relationships with no complete compliance image. The remark length closes at the related regulatory time limits; ultimate laws, if followed, would most probably have an effect on the vast majority of bank-fintech partnership frameworks working below OCC and FDIC charters.
AI point 1 of five: written via Darlyn Ho; AI helped with tone, construction or wording; edited and signed off via Mark Walker, Editorial Director. What the levels mean