US OCC pushes banks to offer fairer access to banking services

​The US banking regualtor Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) proposed a rule, seeking to provide fairer access to banking services to affected businesses.

On November 20, the OCC's published a statement that "banks should provide access to services, capital, and credit based on the risk assessment of individual customers, rather than broad-based decisions affecting whole categories or classes of customers,".

Essentially, the proposal will stop banks from limiting the access customers or businesses have to banking services. Instead, banks would be required to make their products available to everyone in the community they serve. However, it is still up to the bank to deny services to a customer based on their creditworthiness, ability to pay, and other risk-based factors. 

While the proposal itself makes no specific mention of cryptocurrency industry businesses, there's little doubt it would have a positive impact on such firms, given the long-standing barriers between them and bank accounts in the US.

"Today, the OCC, led by @BrianBrooksOCC is making a bold effort to curtail the practice by prohibiting banks from discriminating against politically disfavored but otherwise legal businesses," lawyer Marco Santori wrote on Twitter. 

Brooks himself said in a statement: "This proposed rule would ensure that banks meet their responsibility to provide their services fairly since they enjoy special privilege and powers because if the system fails to provide fairness to all, it cannot be a source of strength for any."