Figure Technologies OCC Fintech Charter Review Completed, Decision Pending

In December 2021, OCC Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu signaled that the agency's review of Figure Technologies' national bank charter application was complete and that decisions were expected shortly after. Figure Technologies, a blockchain-based fintech offering home equity lines of credit and other financial products, had originally filed its OCC charter application in November 2020. The application had been contentious, prompting a December 2020 lawsuit from the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) challenging the OCC's authority to grant fintech charters.

While no approval was issued in December 2021, Figure subsequently amended its application in early January 2022 to commit to seeking FDIC deposit insurance, which led CSBS to drop its lawsuit on January 14, 2022. OCC conditional approval would have been a prerequisite for Figure's subsequent FDIC and Federal Reserve applications. The pending decision represented a significant test case for the OCC's fintech charter framework and the broader debate over how non-traditional financial companies access bank charters.

No other fintech received OCC charter approval during this period.