Our Take: financial services regulatory update – February 13, 2026

February 13, 2026

Change remains a constant in financial services regulation

Read "our take" on the latest developments and what they mean.

Charters: Industry comments on OCC proposal, Congress on de novo charters

What happened? The following notable events occurred over the past week related to bank charters:

On February 11^th, the comment period ended for the OCC’s national trust charter proposal that would clarify that limited-purpose trust banks can conduct non-fiduciary activities. Shortly before the comment period ended, a number of industry and community groups made their comment letters public.
On February 9^th, the House voted 390-9 to pass the Housing for the 21^st Century Act, which among many other items would call upon federal banking regulators to streamline the de novo chartering process and create a two-year phase in for de novo financial institutions to meet federal capital requirements.

What was in the comment letters? The comment letters center around the following themes:

Scope of activities. Some critics argue that the proposal is overly broad and could be read to expand trust charters beyond their intended purpose. Supporters respond that the proposal merely clarifies trust charters’ scope.
Digital assets. Several letters highlight the proposal’s implications for digital asset custody firms and stablecoin issuers, with some letters expressing concern that the proposal could encourage the expansion of uninsured high-risk firms without clear guardrails.
Regulatory arbitrage. Certain commenters highlighted that the proposal’s broad scope could result in charter-shopping by potential applicants seeking to find loopholes.
Safety and soundness. Some commenters emphasize the need for clear supervisory expectations, especially for uninsured institutions. Concerns include adequacy of resolution authority, operational risk management, and ensuring appropriate prudential standards comparable to applied to insured banks where similar activities are conducted.

What’s next? The OCC will review the comments and is expected to finalize the proposal in the near future. The Housing for the 21^st Century Act will be reviewed by the Senate before it holds a vote.

Our Take

Despite critics, regulators and Congress move forward with encouraging new charters

Taken together, the OCC proposal and House passage of the Housing for the 21^st Century Act reflect a broader policy tilt toward reinvigorating banking charters. The proposal’s brief 30-day comment period as well as Comptroller Jonathan Gould’s enthusiastic comments on expanding trust charters signal that the OCC is unlikely to significantly delay or modify its proposal. Instead, we could see certain concerns expressed in comment letters – such as the need for clarification on the trust charter’s powers as well as supervisory expectations – addressed through additional guidance. And while we hesitate to predict that any bill will pass the current heavily-divided Congress, the strong bipartisan support in the House portends that if any bill will pass through this Congress, the Housing for the 21st Century Act is a good candidate.

The window is open – but for how long?

The OCC’s proposal is just another step the agency has taken to create an encouraging environment for national trust charters. In December 2025, it announced conditional approvals for five national trust bank charter applications – a steep increase from the five total approvals over the prior two years (2023 and 2024). However, the window may not remain open for long considering that previous administrations have been more cautious around issuing trust charters and some industry members have expressed concerns highlighted in the recent comment letters.

In deciding on whether to apply for a trust charter, firms must consider if the economic benefits (additional clients and fee-generating services) outweigh the associated costs, largely from associated with (a) meeting capital and liquidity conditions attached to charter approvals and (b) building and maintaining risk management and compliance programs to meet ongoing regulatory expectations. Firms with strategies that meet these hurdles would be well served to apply soon.

For more on considerations for potential trust charter applicants, see our newly-released paper National trust charters: A regulatory key to unlock scalable growth.

On our radar

OCC proposes new bank supervisory appeals framework. On February 13^th, the OCC issued a proposal to revise its process for appealing material supervisory determinations. The proposal would establish a three-member Appeals Board — composed of the Chief National Bank Examiner and two external term appointees — and formally adopt a de novo standard of review under which the Board would not defer to supervisory staff. Comments are due 60 days after Federal Register publication, which is scheduled for February 17th.

SEC Chair Atkins testifies before Congress. This week, SEC Chair Paul Atkins testified before the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee. His discussed priorities including modernizing and streamlining disclosures, continuing to support digital assets through coordination with the CFTC and implementing the CLARITY Act if and when it passes Congress, and encouraging more IPOs by reducing regulatory barriers and litigation pressures.

House passes several financial services bills. On February 9^th, the House of Representatives passed several bills in addition to the Housing for the 21^st Century Act. One of the other bills, the Financial Stability Oversight Council Improvement Act, would require the FSOC to consider alternative approaches before determining that a nonbank financial institutions (NBFIs) should be subject to Fed supervision. Another bill, the Bringing the Discount Window into the 21^st Century Act, would require the Fed to conduct a review of discount window operations and make a plan to remediate any deficiencies.

GAO releases report on the CFPB’s reorganization efforts. On February 9th, GAO published a report of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s 2025 restructuring actions, finding that the agency issued stop-work orders, closed supervisory exams, and terminated staff, contracts, and enforcement matters in response to executive orders. The GAO indicates that the effects of these actions will be the subject of a future report.

NCUA issues three proposed rules affecting credit union conversions, chartering, and insurance status. On February 11th and 9th, the NCUA published proposed rules addressing: (1) the conversion of insured credit unions to mutual savings banks; (2) updates to chartering and field-of-membership interpretive policies; and (3) procedures for mergers and the voluntary termination or conversion of federal share insurance. All three proposals are open for comment through April 13, 2026.

FDIC extends comment period on proposed stablecoin approval framework. On February 11th, the FDIC extended the comment deadline for its December 2025 proposed rule establishing procedures for FDIC-supervised institutions seeking approval to issue payment stablecoins through subsidiaries under the GENIUS Act. The comment period, originally set to close February 17th, 2026, has been extended to May 18th, 2026 to allow additional time for stakeholder feedback.

ECB and ESRB highlight financial stability risks from bank–NBFI linkages. On February 12th, The European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) issued a joint report assessing systemic risks stemming from EU area banks’ interconnectedness with the NBFI sector. While current risks are not deemed to be acute, the report finds that concentrated short-term NBFI funding to banks and bank lending to leveraged NBFIs create vulnerabilities that could amplify stress in adverse market conditions.

2026 stress test economic scenarios released. On February 12th, the FDIC, in coordination with the Fed and OCC, published the baseline and severely adverse hypothetical economic scenarios that covered institutions with more than $250 billion in total consolidated assets will use for upcoming Dodd-Frank Act stress tests. The scenarios include 28 macroeconomic variables and are designed to assess the resiliency of large banks.