Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika stated that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") will not petition the Financial Stability Oversight Council ("FSOC") to stay the effective date of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau arbitration rule.
Mr. Noreika expressed a concern "that the rule may adversely affect the institutions within the federal banking system and their customers." However, he added, the OCC has not had sufficient time to complete a comprehensive review of the rule in order to meet the deadline to file a petition with FSOC. He also stated that he supports Congressional efforts to overturn the rule using the Congressional Review Act (see previous coverage).
In a report released on July 21, 2017, Democratic staff from the United States House Committee on Financial Services expressed concern that Mr. Noreika would petition the FSOC to stay the effective date of the rule (see previous coverage):
"[Mr.] Noreika, who was named Acting Comptroller under questionable backdoor procedures by the Trump Administration, suddenly weighed in to express never before shared concerns about the impact of the rule on safety and soundness. In doing so, he may have signaled the OCC's intent to stop the final rule by petitioning FSOC to repeal the final rule. But, his last-minute expression of concerns about the final rule appears to have ignored the question of why the OCC failed to convey similar concerns earlier in the rulemaking process."
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