Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Jobs in Virginia

Company:

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Current Opportunities (2)
Company Website

Location(s):

Independence Square
250 E Street SW
Washington, DC
20219
Map Location

Phone:

(202) 8744066

Industry:

Government

Size:

500 or more

Company Overview

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) charters, regulates, and supervises all national banks. It also supervises the federal branches and agencies of foreign banks. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the OCC has four district offices plus an office in London to supervise the international activities of national banks.

The OCC was established in 1863 as a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The OCC is headed by the Comptroller , who is appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a five-year term. The Comptroller also serves as a director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and a director of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation.

The OCC's nationwide staff of examiners conducts on-site reviews of national banks and provides sustained supervision of bank operations. The agency issues rules, legal interpretations, and corporate decisions concerning banking, bank investments, bank community development activities, and other aspects of bank operations.

National bank examiners supervise domestic and international activities of national banks and perform corporate analyses. Examiners analyze a bank's loan and investment portfolios, funds management, capital, earnings, liquidity, sensitivity to market risk, and compliance with consumer banking laws, including the Community Reinvestment Act. They review the bank's internal controls, internal and external audit, and compliance with law. They also evaluate bank management's ability to identify and control risk.

In regulating national banks, the OCC has the power to:

* Examine the banks.
* Approve or deny applications for new charters, branches, capital, or other changes in corporate or banking structure.
* Take supervisory actions against banks that do not comply with laws and regulations or that otherwise engage in unsound banking practices. The agency can remove officers and directors, negotiate agreements to change banking practices, and issue cease and desist orders as well as civil money penalties.
* Issue rules and regulations governing bank investments, lending, and other practices.

The OCC's Objectives:

The OCC's activities are predicated on four objectives that support the OCC's mission to ensure a stable and competitive national banking system.

The four objectives are:

* To ensure the safety and soundness of the national banking system.
* To foster competition by allowing banks to offer new products and services.
* To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of OCC supervision, including reducing regulatory burden.
* To ensure fair and equal access to financial services for all Americans.

History:

In 1861, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase recommended the establishment of a system of federally chartered national banks, each of which would have the power to issue standardized national bank notes based on United States bonds held by the bank. In the National Currency Act of 1863, the administration of the new national banking system was vested in the newly created OCC and its chief administrator, the Comptroller of the Currency.

The law was completely rewritten and re-enacted as the National Bank Act. That act authorized the Comptroller of the Currency to hire a staff of national bank examiners to supervise and periodically examine national banks. The act also gave the Comptroller authority to regulate lending and investment activities of national banks.

One of the reasons Congress created a banking system that issued national currency was to finance the Civil War. Although national banks no longer issue currency, they continue to play a prominent role in the nation's economic life. The OCC regulates and supervises about 1,600 national banks and 50 federal branches of foreign banks in the U.S., accounting for nearly two-thirds of the total assets of all U.S. commercial banks (as of June 30, 2009).