Regulation & Compliance

Last week's regulation and compliance coverage was dominated by bank charter news, particularly around Revolut. Banking Dive Newsletter reported that Revolut nabbed a conditional OCC charter, while Fintech Futures covered Revolut winning conditional approval for a US bank charter. Payments Wrap Up and Connecting the Dots in FinTech also covered this development, with the former noting Revolut won a conditional US banking license and the latter describing it as clearing a major U.S. banking hurdle. Sifted Fintech Newsletter framed the news as Revolut clearing the first hurdle to a US banking licence. Separately, Banking Dive Newsletter reported that TabaPay is eyeing an OCC charter through a Denver bank deal, and American Banker Fintech covered Zerohash refiling its trust bank charter application to the OCC. Fintech Futures also reported that Allica Bank applied for a Swedish banking licence as part of a European growth push.

Stablecoin and crypto regulatory matters featured across several newsletters. Fintech Business Weekly covered legal filings alleging that Homeland Security and Tether illegally seized stablecoins. Stack and Story published multiple items on the topic, including coverage of the Bank of Korea's position that dollar stablecoins could weaken the won, the SEC's ETF fast track splitting the crypto industry, the crypto lobby asking the SEC to lock in ETF rules, and Singapore banning stablecoin yield while not addressing risk. Andrew's Angles covered lessons from the BIS on stablecoins without elaborating on specifics.

American Banker Fintech carried a broad set of compliance-related stories, including a bank ID vendor traced to a dark web license sale, a GAO report flagging disclosure gaps exposed by the 2023 bank failures, and the SEC moving to nullify the pay-to-play ban for federal contracts. The newsletter also covered the CLARITY Act debate as it relates to community banks, advised that U.S. banks may need to blacklist UAE branches of Banque Misr, and reported on proposed IRS and Treasury rules for Trump accounts taking a "prescriptive" approach.

Licensing activity beyond bank charters was also covered. Payments Wrap Up reported that OpenPayd strengthened its position in the U.S. market through the acquisition of 43 state licences, a story also covered by Connecting the Dots in FinTech, which framed it as OpenPayd taking 43 U.S. licences into its global fintech push.