Who said regulators can’t be innovative?

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced its Office of Innovation will host Office Hours for financial institutions and fintechs, to be held from July 24 to 26, at the OCC’s district office in New York City. Companies can request a slot by July 5.

The OCC held its first Office Hours in May, with more than 20 participants, Beth Knickerbocker, OCC’s chief innovation officer, told Bank Innovation.

“[We] gained a better understanding of the common issues or concerns that banks and fintechs are facing,” she said. “The meetings helped us expand our knowledge of new products and services focused on customer needs, and developing technologies and their potential applications.”

The meetings are “informal” with banks and nonbanks, Knickerbocker added, and are aimed at addressing their concerns about “new products or services, financial technology, partnering with a bank or fintech company, or any other innovation-related issue,” she said. “They can also have candid discussions about any [other] issue they would like to discuss outside of the supervisory process.” 

To make the most out of these hour-long meetings, companies should prepare their questions and discussion points in advance. “Familiarizing themselves with the OCC and its responsible innovation initiative ahead of time also helps,” Knickerbocker said. “The topics and questions we received [before] vary widely. Topics included partnering with banks and third-party risk management expectations, and how best to prepare to operate in a highly-regulated environment.”

OCC’s Office of Innovation was established in October of last year to provide fintechs and FIs with a platform to have a candid and open dialogue with the agency on innovation, and to provide technical assistance. It also allows the regulatory agency to better familiarize itself with the latest innovations in the industry, according to Knickerbocker:

“Part of the OCC’s innovation framework is to improve the timeliness of our decisions and feedback to participants in the federal banking system through our outreach and research efforts, as well as our efforts internally to improve the awareness and knowledge of OCC staff on emerging trends in the industry.”

OCC will announce more Office Hours in other cities soon.