To challenge the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)’s decision to allow online payment companies and lenders to have national bank charters, the top banking regulator in New York is suing the federal government. In a complaint filed with a federal court, New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) Superintendent Maria Vullo said, “The OCC’s reckless folly should be stopped,” Reuters reported.
Further panning the decision, Vullo called the move “lawless, ill-conceived and destabilizing of financial markets.” The decision, she said, also means that consumers are “at great risk of exploitation,” and paves the way for further “too big to fail” institutions. But Bryan Hubbard, a spokesperson for the OCC, said it would defend the ability to provide qualified firms “engaged in the business of banking” with national charters.