WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will pause the publication of a controversial final rule that would have punished large banks for cutting off services to fims in politically unpopular industries.
“Pausing publication of the rule in the Federal Register will allow the next confirmed Comptroller of the Currency to review the final rule and the public comments the OCC received, as part of an orderly transition,” the OCC said in a press release.
The agency’s so-called fair access rule, introduced by the then-acting Comptroller Brian Brooks in late November and finalized in the closing hours of the Trump administration, would have prohibited national banks with more than $100 billion of assets from denying financial services to any firm without a “documented failure to meet quantitative, risk-based standards,” according to the rule.
The move was seen as a response, in part, to some banks’ decisions to curtail lending to gun manufacturers and energy firms seen as contributing to global warming. Brooks, however, had argued the rule’s effect would be far-reaching, extending, for example, to family planning organizations such as Planned Parenthood.
Banks and their advocates called the proposal arbitrary, capricious and legally dubious, though the plan was applauded by some industries whose members have struggled to access financial services from banks in recent years. All in all, the proposal received more than 35,000 comments from the public — 4,200 in support, and 31,290 opposed.
The rule was finalized on Brooks’ last day in office, though policy analysts saw a number of avenues for the Biden administration to halt the rule from going into effect in April. President Biden has not yet named his nominee to head the OCC, though some news outlets have reported that that Michael Barr, an Obama-era Treasury official, is the front-runner.
The agency said in an email that the move to "pause publication of the rule was an independent decision by the OCC."
