Office Of The Comptroller Of The Currency: The Federal Character Of The National Bank Charter

The OCC issued two regulations that reflect fundamental characteristics of the national banking system. The first clarifies what types of state laws apply to national banks, while the second clarifies issues related to the OCC's exclusive visitorial powers over national banks. As part of the rulemaking on the applicability of state laws to national banks, the OCC also established a strong standard to ensure that predatory lending does not gain a foothold in the national banking system. The OCC took this step despite widespread agreement that predatory lending remains a problem for unregulated financial institutions, rather than for regulated commercial banks.

The OCC published a number of documents explaining the rulemakings on national bank preemption and the OCC's visitorial powers, including:

• Statement from the Comptroller
• Press Release 2004-03
• Final Rule: Preemption
• Final Rule: Visitorial Powers
• Questions and Answers on the Preemption Rulemaking
• Questions and Answers on the Visitorial Powers Rule
• A chart comparing OCC's preemption rule with those of the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration.