Jonathan V. Gould Marks One Year as Comptroller of the Currency

WASHINGTON—Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould today issued remarks on his work and progress to ensure the continued relevance of the federal banking system and its ability to meet the evolving financial needs of the American people. He also emphasized the importance of maintaining the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as a credible and effective regulator while adapting to technological innovation and a rapidly changing financial landscape.

Excerpts from Comptroller Gould’s remarks are below. His full statement can be found here.

On tailoring regulation and supervision for economic growth

We began by refocusing supervision on what matters most: material financial risk. We have returned to a more transparent, consistent, and risk-based supervisory approach by clarifying expectations, improving consistency across examination teams, and ensuring that supervisory decisions remain grounded in objective financial risks.

Every hour our banks spend complying with unnecessary requirements is an hour that could be better spent serving customers, extending credit, or supporting economic growth.

On driving and supporting innovation

The United States must remain the world's premier destination for financial innovation. That leadership depends not only on private-sector ingenuity, but also on a regulatory framework that provides clarity, encourages responsible innovation, and enables new technologies to develop within the safety and soundness of the federal banking system.

Our objective is straightforward: the federal banking system should remain the gold standard for responsible financial innovation. As financial markets evolve, innovation should occur within well-supervised institutions operating under clear rules.

On investing in our institution and our people

The strength of the OCC has and always will be its people. Throughout the past year, we have worked to strengthen this agency by recruiting exceptional talent, developing leaders from within, and ensuring that our organization is well-positioned to meet the opportunities and challenges of an increasingly dynamic financial system.

On opportunities ahead

I am confident that our chartering function will continue to see a robust pipeline as the banking system shakes off the paralysis of the last 20 years and reverts to its innovative form, meeting the changing needs of customers and markets, and taking advantage of new technologies to do so.

I will be resetting expectations for what supervision can deliver – both within our agency and at our banks. We will use technology and AI to arrive at supervisory conclusions with conviction faster, deploy examiner resources based on risk, and perform more direct validation of our larger banks’ balance sheets and financial risks. In exchange, we will demand greater direct and sustained attention from bank decision-makers and faster remediation timeframes for issues we identify, especially at the biggest banks.

Related Link

• Comptroller Remarks (PDF)