What's New? Two joint notices of rulemaking from the OCC and FDIC

The OCC and FDIC have proposed two joint notices of rulemaking intended to shift supervisory focus primarily onto material financial risks. One of these rules, released October 7, specifically addresses reputation risk by codifying its elimination from supervisory programs. Under this proposed reputation risk rule, examiners would be prohibited from criticizing or taking adverse action against a bank, or encouraging account closures, based solely on a person or entity’s political, social, cultural, or religious views, constitutionally protected speech, or lawful but politically disfavored business activities perceived to present reputation risk. The second proposed rule, also released October 7, establishes a uniform definition for the term “unsafe or unsound practice”. This definition includes a practice that is "contrary to generally accepted standards of prudent operation". Additionally, the practice must be likely to materially harm the financial condition of the bank, present a material risk of loss to the Deposit Insurance Fund, or already have materially harmed the bank’s financial condition. This proposal also revises the issuance framework for Matters Requiring Attention (MRAs), allowing them only for defined unsafe or unsound practices or violations of banking or banking-related laws.

For more details, see OCC bulletins 2025-29 and 2025-30.